As Things Change, Forget What You Once Knew
by Critter-21
Summary: One year after Kim Possible graduated, she takes a college job that involves her babysitting a teenager with, of all people, Shego. How will this workout? Will they kill each other? And what is the deal with this strange new teen? Rated for later violence
1. Chapter 1

Yes, I know I do not own a lot of things, including Kim Possible (I believe the Disney corporation does), or anything else except this story idea, the original characters (including "Jeremy," "Angel," "Nick," and the others in later chapters).

* * *

"Was there something you wanted?" asked Dr. Director, the head of the international crime-fighting agency Global Justice.

The young man standing in the door smiled and stepped around to the front of the desk and glanced down at a chair. As he entered Dr Director barely glanced at him as she motioned for him to sit he stretched his back and took his seat slouching slightly. He stood at a little over six feet tall in his black leather boots, and was dressed in an entirely black outfit except for a blood red collar on his suede leather jacket, and a small matching red stripe that ran down the outside seam of his pants legs.

"Well the fact is that I do need something from your . . . organization."

"Why am I not surprised Mr. Cridon?" Dr Director sighed as if it pained her to speak to him.

"And it's not anything big _this_ time," Cridon continued as if he hadn't heard the directors comment. "To simplify the situation, one of our people wants to study medicine within the United States, but first she need to get her basic collegiate studies out of the way."

Dr Director gave him an odd look with her one good eye and asked, "What does that have to do with Global Justice?"

"Many people within our government are rather anxious about a young woman staying within the United States, or any other country alone, I am sure that you can understand their concerns. After the results of the last incident some have raised the concern that if an entire platoon of Special Forces aren't safe then what chance does one seventeen year old have surviving, by herself, in the world."

"Well it is an unsafe world no matter which nation you travel to, especially since we are still trying to restore order after that alien invasion last year, but what is it you want of us?" Dr Director asked, while slowly losing what patience she had left. Then she asked suspiciously, "Do you want _us_ to baby-sit her?"

"No, no, I have already prepared a list of several candidates for that, and ran them by my superiors," Cridon continued as he drew a small PA out of his jacket and began to search for something on it. "They narrowed the list to two women that they feel are capable of keeping up with her, and all we need from you is aid with three small . . . uh . . . snags in our plan."

Betty Director winced as she saw a large headache coming on, "Which are?"

"Number One, we need GJ's help to get our girl registered in an American University of our choice, and since our nation does not officially exist at the moment, and so her school, and collegiate records, also do not officially exist."

"That won't be a problem. Many local communities lost their records after the Lowardian attack, so forged alias's and records shouldn't be a problem." Betty answered then wondered which of the next 'snags' would be the bomb she was about to be hit with.

"Numbers Two and Three on the list are actually interconnected."

_Great here it comes_. Betty closed her eye and controlled her breathing to keep from over reacting to the bad news that she new was coming.

"Number Two is actually getting the first candidate on board for this assignment. We have put together some incentive for her, but we believe that if you are there with us she might be more inclined to accept."

"Why, does she know me?" Betty asked, rapidly becoming interested. Global Justice was a clandestine organization, and very few people outside the organization knew of any of the member's identities. She could think of only a handful that were young, female, knew her well enough to trust her, and would be willing to go along with this type of plan- _No! Not_ her! _They cannot mean_- "Miss Possible!"

"Yes Miss Kimberly Ann Possible," declared Cridon as he reviewed her file on his PA. "Formally Teen Hero, currently a full time Collegiate Undergraduate Student, and part-time Hero."

Betty winced as she felt the initial effects of her headache began. "Well, you do aim high, but how do you expect her to agree to this?"

"Simple. We did our research into each candidate ahead of time, and we researched probable schools for our girl. The first thing we discovered is that Miss Possible did initially study abroad for her first semester, but is transferring back to the United States, probably due to wanting to be close to family and friends. Not surprising, considering all that they've been through trying to rebuild after the damage Warmonaga and her boyfriend did. The problem that she is facing now is that she chose to transfer back to an American University late in the applications window for many of the larger, and/or more prestigious schools that are still standing, and was also unable to secure very many scholarships to the schools that are still available. This means that she is burning through both loans, which need to be repaid with interest, and her parent's bank accounts, which leaves someone like her feeling guilty for being a burden to them.

"We plan to offer her a full college scholarship including all other expenses, along with a monthly paycheck for time spent as a bodyguard. In addition any other expenses incurred, such as transportation and fuel will also be covered. This added with a second body-guard means that she will have plenty of time off to do her hero activities, and still have time for study."

"And who is this second body-guard?" Betty asked suspiciously.

"The only other one that our people would feel comfortable with," Cridon answered in a matter-of-fact manner. "Miss Go."

"_SHEGO!"_ Dr Director screamed, and nearly leaped out of her chair in surprise.

"I see that you remember her." Cridon said smirking.

"Are you insane?" Betty exclaimed, losing all composure she previously had. "Why the-" she paused as she remembered her favorite saying 'He who shouts loudest has lost.' _Must keep calm, must keep composed, and I _must _win_. She closed her eye for a moment and took a deep breath to regain her composure. After a second she released her breath and calmly asked "Why Shego?"

Cridon was now grinning widely and barely managing to not laugh at the reaction of Global Justice's commander. "It's rather simple." He answered while marking off points on his fingers, "First, Miss Go and Miss Possible are by far the two most deadly women on this planet. Second, Miss Go has extensive experience as a bodyguard, with Miss Possible being the only person who can get past her. Third, Miss Go is genetically modified like our girl so the two will be more receptive to one another, even if Miss Go is a loner type."

"You forgot to mention that she and Dr. Drakken went into retirement after the Earth was invaded and they helped save it."

"I haven't forgotten about the 'retirement' of Mr. Lipsky," answered Cridon while returning to his PDA to review another file. "Nor have I forgotten that last month you placed them both back on your most wanted list without giving any official reason that I can find."

"It was a need-to-know basis," Betty answered in a defensive tone.

"Regardless, if she wishes to join in on this endeavor I would appreciate your support."

Betty could not believe what she was hearing, and decided to get some clarification. "Let me get this clear, you want two of the worlds busiest women to drop everything they are doing and _baby-sit_ some seventeen year old, genetically altered college girl?"

"No, I want to give two of the worlds busiest women a chance to make some money, legitimately, without having to take up too much of their time," Cridon clarified. "This is not going to be a 24/7 job for either of them, I'll just be paying them to keep an eye on her so that she doesn't get kidnapped her first semester in college."

_Kim will never go for this especially after the whole Prince Wally fiasco. Besides she is far too busy to take on a long term project like this. So why shouldn't I just let her shoot him down and be done with it, or at least let Shego turn him down_. She smiled as she considered her plan. "Very well I'll get in touch with Miss Possible, and Miss Go. Despite what you may have heard in the Tabloids, Miss Go is not wanted by Global Justice any more; though Mr. Lipsky is under suspicion, as usual. When would you like to meet with them?"

Cridon was smiling widely as he considered how everything seemed to be working well for him. "How about setting a meeting with the two of them for this evening, at ten o'clock. I will meet with them both individually and then give them a chance to meet the young lady that they will be watching."

"A good plan," commented Betty. "Miss Possible is currently staying in the apartment of a friend here in Middleton, why don't you meet with her there this afternoon while I arrange for Shego to come here this evening."

* * *

Dear Kimberly,

I was just visiting your Uncle the other day and met the most adorable young lady there. She is only seventeen, but she is going to college this next year, and her family is most concerned with her living alone, at such a young age. I understand from your father that you have not chosen a school yet, but if you do would you would be so kind as to keep an eye on her. Your Uncle 'Slim', and cousin Joss, and I were so taken with her, and I am sure that you will be too.

Lovingly,

Nana

* * *

Kim looked over the letter once more before setting it down. _Hmm… I wonder what this is all about._ She thought to herself,_ I haven't talked to my Aunt or Uncle in awhile, so this could be anyone, and what school is this girl going to? _She considered,_ Nana didn't say for me to, but is she assuming that I will call her and ask? Or maybe I need to call Mom and ask if she knows what's going on? Ok, now I'm giving myself a headache!_

Kim sat back and took a moment to collect her thoughts. She had just arrived back in the US a few days before and had not even had much of an opportunity to catch up with many of her friends, much less extended family. Her parents were out enjoying their second honeymoon trying to relax after rebuilding their home and community, and her brothers were probably still causing the scout camp masters worst nightmares to come true at this very moment. Monique had been kind enough to allow her to crash at her apartment for the time being and Kim was very appreciative of that fact. Monique was one of the few friends that Kim had from High School that was still in the area. Ron had picked up a Summer Internship of some kind near Washington D.C. but he had not told her much more than that. Tara, and several of the other old Cheer Squad members had moved on to different universities and most were taking summer school, and others like Bonnie had left the country for the summer.

Kim stood up and walked towards the apartment's bathroom for an aspirin. However, before she could reach the medicine cabinet someone knocked on her door.

Groaning to herself, and muttering about how her life couldn't get any more complicated she marched to the front door, and threw it open.

Leaning against the doorframe was a young man in his early Twenties wearing a black jacket with a red collar, black pants with a narrow red stripe down the seem, boots, and dark brown hair that was smoothed back, in a classic 1950's style.

_I am soo not in the mood for this._ Kim thought to herself. "Is there something you need?" _Like wardrobe advise?_

"If you are Kim Possible then yes," he answered smiling, "I assume that you are her?"

_OK now things are going from weird to creepy_. "Yes, is this some kind of emergency?"

"Miss Possible-"

"Kim, please."

"Sorry." The man began again, "Kim, I do have a proposition for you, though I would not classify it as an 'emergency.'"

_Now moving fast from creepy to Twilight zone_. Kim thought to herself, "What kind of 'proposition?'"

The man smiled a little larger, and replied, "Yes, well, to begin with my name is Nick Cridon, and last week I met you grandmother while visiting your Uncle Slim in Montana with a relative of mine that is going to college this fall. Your 'Nana' and the young lady hit it off fairly well when they met and she suggested to us that considering how concerned our family is with the prospect of a young seventeen year old being at college alone that having an older mentor to look out for her would be a good idea."

Kim started to see where the conversation was going and decided to cut to the heart of the matter. "And so she suggested me."

Nick nodded, "Yeah she said that you were transferring to a school in the US and she also mentioned that your major was similar to hers so going to the same school for study would not be out of the question."

"Wait what is her field?"

"She is planning on going for a pre-med degree and also studying economics as well."

"Well the economics is similar to what I'm studying but not the pre-med."

Nick pulled out his PDA and glanced at the screen and continued, "From what I heard from your grandmother you were rather disturbed at the rising levels of starvation in the countries that you visited while saving the world, and decided to help stop it by studying Agriculture and Economics. Now I've looked up many good schools in the country that deal with Agriculture, Economics, and Biological studies and found one that is both close to Colorado, and is still accepting applicants."

"Why would the location be key?" asked Kim.

"Well you moved back to the United States to be close to your friends and family, so having a school that is in reasonable proximity to your home is probably important correct?"

Kim was starting to figure out that this guy had done his homework before coming over and that he knew her very well, "Yes but that is not the only thing that I am looking for."

"Of course not," answered Nick as he put away his PDA and, started to count off points on his fingers, "You also will need a University that will work around your 'save the world' activities, one that is a world leader in Agriculture and Economic studies, one that is near an airport for quick travel, and one that is centrally located for travel throughout the nation. Are those valid points for starters?" Nick asked while smirking at Kim's amazement at his insight.

"I can see that you've thought this out." Kim answered to cover her frustration with the way that it seemed that this man knew so much about her.

"Talking to your family did help me out on this," he admitted. "Now I do know of a school that GJ has been helping me with and it is located in Texas, and it is not very far from two international airports, and one large shipping port. It is considered a world class school for Agriculture, Economics, and Engineering studies."

"And let me guess it is located in a smaller college town than most, and has a small-town atmosphere right?" Kim interrupted as she realized the one he was talking about.

"Uh, yeah," Nick answered confused. "I guess you know Texas Agriculture and Engineering University?"

"Yes I did apply there but I haven't heard back from them."

"Yes, well GJ owes me a few favors and they found a way this afternoon to contact the University and surprisingly found that the place still has a number of open slots for last minute admission."

"So what's your offer?" Kim asked suddenly interested. Normally she hated getting favors like this to bypass the system, but with most schools starting soon she was starting to get a little desperate.

"Nothing to it really. We just want to offer you a full college scholarship, plus living expenses, and an apartment with the girl and another woman whom I think you know. All that we ask in exchange is that you keep an eye on the girl and make sure that she doesn't kill herself."

"You want me to baby-sit a college student?" Kim's mouth dropped as images of Prince Wally flashed in her brain. "Why, are you planning on someone trying to kidnap her?"

"Yes, in a way we are concerned that something like that might happen, though if you are interested in taking this offer I'd rather discuss that aspect of this with you and the other woman that we are approaching together. I promise that we'll answer all of your questions then."

"Who is this other woman," Kim asked. "If I agree to this I would like to know who I'll be working with."

"Global Justice is picking her up right now."

"Why is Global Justice involved in this anyways," Kim asked. Global Justice did not usually get involved unless the security of more than one nation was at stake. _If they were working with this family, then this was no ordinary sitch_.

"We'll explain it all later I promise," assured Nick. "If it is alright with you a member of GJ will come by around nine-thirty and will bring you to the local headquarters to meet with the other woman you'll be working with, and I'll try to have the girl in question there too. Also Dr. Director will be there as well, and between the two of us we'll answer any questions you have. If you still have any reservations you can just walk away. So really there is no risk or obligation, what do you say?"

Kim took a deep breath and thought about it for a second before replying. "Sure I'll go but I'm not promising anything."

Nick grinned widely, "Thanks that's all I ask."

* * *

"You must be Miss Go." Nick stated as a young lady entered the office.

The newcomer was of average height, with a very attractive figure, that would draw a lot of attention to her on its own. Though there was another feature that did just that, but a lot better. The lady's skin was green. A light green to be precise, and even her raven colored hair had a green tint that became visible when the light hit it. All this made it quite impossible for the woman to be mistaken for anyone but the world famous, and infamous Shego.

"I see we have a real Einstein here," Shego muttered as she helped herself to a chair, while carefully watching her surroundings. Even though she was no longer a wanted criminal, she still was uneasy about being around Global Justice personnel.

"Please have a seat," Dr. Elizabeth Director said sarcastically.

"Thank you," Shego answered with equal sarcasm. "So what was it that you needed that was soo important that I couldn't say no over the phone?"

Dr. Director gestured to Nick and answered Shego. "Lieutenant Cridon wishes to hire you and another young lady as bodyguards for someone under his command for the next few months-"

"Whoa! Wait a minute!" Shego interrupted as she shot up straight in her chair. "I'm not some lowlife thug that you can just buy on the street!" She paused then muttered under her breath, "Unlike most of the trash in this building."

"Just one minute-" Betty sapped as she jumped top her feet in anger before Nick interrupted.

"Calm down you two," he responded stepping forward with his hands raised. Both women froze and glared at each other for a second before regaining their respective composures, and Dr. Director took her seat again. "Ma'am, Doctor, there is no need to start this, at least not until Miss Go has had a chance to hear everything out. Miss Go I am not trying to hire scum, or 'lowlife thugs' as you call them. If I wanted live targets then I wouldn't go through the trouble of paying them. What I am looking for is the best bodyguard in the business. From what I have found that is you and you alone. After all there is only one person on the planet that has matched you to date, isn't that correct."

"Well that is a polite way of saying it, but it's not like she's smarter than me," Shego added defensively.

"Never said that Miss Possible was," Nick added. "Though the fact remains that only one person on the planet can match you, and She's not a bodyguard, so that makes you the best in the business."

"So what's your point?" Shego asked impatiently, "Just trying to point out my mistakes? I've already got a boss who does that enough."

"No I was just making sure that you understood that this isn't some casual hire." Nick clarified. "My people need someone who is that the top of his or her game to handle this assignment and despite what Global Justice seems to think, their people just are not good enough for this job."

"Whoa," Shego stated her eyes wide in mock astonishment, "_Global Justice_ isn't good enough, but _I_ am? Gasp, I think I might faint!"

"Oh shut up Shego, this is supposed to be a serious meeting." Betty grumbled. She was never in favor of making deals with criminals, even retired ones, and five minutes in the same room as Shego was doing wonders for reminding her why that was.

"Better be careful," Shego warned, while smiling widely, "after all I am your only hope here."

_Great It's already gone to her head_, Betty thought as she put a hand on her head, feeling a migraine coming on, _As if her ego weren't already big enough_.

Nick winced as he felt the meeting falling apart. "Doctor please pull yourself back together, Miss Go please understand that I did not bring you here to patronize you, but to offer you a job with more money and benefits than Mr. Lipsky could ever offer."

"Don't you mean _Dr. Drakken_?" Shego corrected.

"No I do not. You have to actually pass your Doctoral program to earn the right to refer to yourself with the title 'Doctor,' and _Mister_ Lipsky dropped out in his _undergraduate_ level program."

"You know, no one likes a wise guy." Shego muttered.

"So I've heard," Nick answered dryly. "Now getting back to business, we know that Mr. Lipsky is trying to get back into the routine that he enjoyed up until Ms Wormanga invaded Earth with her . . . friend Warhawk. Now I couldn't care less about whether or not he succeeds in his little plans, however I am fairly sure that a person of your skills doesn't want to waist her life picking up after a man with the personality of a five year old."

"Hey Doctor D has some good points!" Shego spoke up, as much to her own surprise as anyone else in the room, however Nick managed to appear unfazed.

"Name five and I'll believe you, and no saving the Earth once doesn't count, especially since everyone in this room has done it themselves, some more than once."

Shego scowled and leaned back into her chair and crossed her arms as Betty and Nick looked at her.

After a moment of silence Nick continued, "Anyways, as I was saying you have two options. The First is to stay with Mr. Lipsky-"

"Doctor Drakken!"

"-and end up failing in plot after plot to Team Possible until either you and your employer finally get killed in one of his literally explosive failures, or end up a burned out failure in a prison cell. Option Number Two, you change careers, leaving Mr. Drew Lipsky to his own devices until he grows up, or dies, and take this job. I guarantee you it will still have the thrills your used to, if it didn't I could just hire a regular bodyguard. Also as I said earlier it will pay more than your current salary, and will have more time off. So what's it going to be?"

Shego paused for a moment and thought about her options. The thought of working for 'the good guys' was rather appalling to her. After all no villainess, or villain wanted to have anything to do with GJ or Team Possible. Also working for either group was far too close to her 'good times' with Team Go, and she had long ago sworn to never work for a team like that ever again.

However like these guys said, this was technically just a bodyguard position like the one she had been doing for Dr. Drakken. In fact this was probably a better deal since she would have Kim there to take some of the work, and there was no way anyone could be as annoying as Drakken was. No t mention that with Drakken retired she needed something to do with her time, other than watching the blue moron humiliate himself in Karaoke clubs.

"Shego, answer him!" Doctor Director yelled impatiently.

"I'm thinking already!" Shego shouted back, then sighed. "So all I'm gonna have to do is make sure this kid doesn't get killed, huh?"

"To take a phrase out of your vocabulary, 'Doy!'"

"Ok, mister smarty, I'll give it a shot. Now let's discuss Green."

_Nice pun, _Nick thought to himself with a sigh.

* * *

"Shego!" bellowed Dr Drakken as he stormed through the Control Room of his new lair, weaving in and out of crates and cardboard boxes. "Shego, where are you, I need you to help unpack. Shego!" Drakken huffed to himself as he walked out of the room and down the main corridor to check the rest of the lair for signs of his missing sidekick.

As he moved throughout the lair he continued to scream for Shego, but only managed to find five of his new henchmen, and his missing paperwork for the timeshare lair that he still had not finished. Angrily he abandoned his search and returned to the Control room and began assembling the Main Computer System for the lair.

Several hours later Drakken finished unpacking the last box, and assembling the last piece of hardware and with a triumphant shout hit the Power button to start the computer, and nothing happened.

"No!" he shrieked, "It has to work." Quickly Drakken dived into the boxes looking for the instructions. "Ah, Ha! Here they are!" he exclaimed as he found them, and began reading them. "Alright did that, did that… don't even have that… is that even English? Did that-"

"Did you attach the power cable to the computer yet?" asked a voice behind Drakken.

"EEEK!"

Screamed Drakken as he leaped into the air, and dashed for the microphone on the console.

"Don't bother with the intercom Doctor. The system hasn't been installed yet. Might I suggest that the next time you buy a Timeshare that you invest in one that is a little more completed?"

"Who are you, and how did you get in here?" Demanded Drakken in a voice that showed far more courage than he was currently feeling.

"My name is Bás, or at least that is what I have been called most recently. As to how I entered I came though the front door. You really need to have one of your people finish installing the wiring for the electronic locks." Bás stepped forward out of the doorway into the room. He was about Six feet Three inches tall and noticeably muscular though not very buff. He was dressed in an entirely black outfit with slacks, leather jacket and turtleneck shirt, and leather shoes recently shined. His hair was dark brown and combed back the side. The thing that bothered Drakken however was that he wore dark shades that kept his eyes concealed.

"Why are you here? This is my lair for the next three months, so I would appreciate it _Mister_ Bás if you would show yourself out!"

"First of all Dr. Drakken I am here to offer you a deal." Bás answered slowly, then he smiled coldly as he continued, "Second, I do not think that a Gentleman such as yourself should be so hasty to make an enemy when you have a mere handful of employees on hand, and none of them even saw me pass by them not ten minutes ago when I entered your facility."

"Do you have any idea who you're messing with?" Bellowed Drakken.

"Drew Theodore Lipsky, AKA Dr. Drakken. Savior of the planet Earth as of thirteen months ago along with a Miss Go, Mr. Stoppable, Miss Possible, and a rodent named Rufus. Isn't that correct?"

"Please don't remind me about that," wailed Drakken as he slapped his hand over his face. "That was a one time thing."

"Does Miss Go see it as a 'One time thing?'" asked Bás.

"Of course she does!" snarled Drakken. "Why wouldn't she?"

"Then where is your loyal sidekick?" Bás continued. "No don't bother to answer," he interjected as Drakken opened his mouth, "I will tell you. Miss Go is meeting with Global Justice as we speak." He paused as Drakken's mouth fell open at the news. "It would seem that your temporary alliance with the Globetrotting Team Possible has given your _former_ sidekick a change of heart."

"NO!" screamed Drakken. "You're wrong! There's got to be another explanation!" He began pacing around the room fumbling with his hands as his mind raced. _Shego working with GJ? No it can't be possible! We're family! We're all part of an Evil family. Shego wouldn't do this to ME! It's got to be a lie, that's it, just a lie! _Then he paused as another thought crept into his mind. _Although she was kinda glad that the whole hiding out thing was over, and she really did seem to enjoy the free time we both had after we were pardoned and given the Peace Medals. Maybe Shego is really retired for good this time. But if Shego retired then why is she meeting with GJ, is she retired, or changing sides? _

"I am afraid this time there is no other explanation," Bás answered sadly. "Considering how hard it was for you _with_ Miss Go I can imagine how difficult you plans will be in her absence. However if you would listen to my offer you might find that your goals will be much easier to accomplish in the near future than you thought possible."

"And what is this offer," Drakken asked suspiciously.

"I am prepared to give you the most advanced prototype plasma weapons and defensive armor available," Bás explained. "I need to see how they work in field tests, and you need the gear now more than ever with your only competent worker gone. So, what I will do is this. You will receive a full shipment of plasma-based assault weapons, along with enough body armor for a dozen of your people. The only catch is that you cannot use them on any of my people, you must give us accurate feedback on their performance, you cannot reverse engineer any of the goods, and any future orders will need to be paid for."

"I dunno," Drakken mussed. "Sounds too good to be true." _And mother always says that anything that seems too good to be true always is_.

_Come on I know you're too dumb to not go for this_. Bás signed and shook his head sadly, "I am afraid that this is a one time offer. If you don't want this gear then how do you expect to defend yourself from a Team Possible that is reinforced with a plasma wielding Miss Go that already knows all of you moves?"

"Ahh, you do have a point," muttered Drakken. _Who says I can't just take his stuff and improve on it,_ he considered. _After all it's just like outsourcing from anyone else_. "Ok, I'll do it."

"Wonderful," Bás said smiling widely. "Expect the shipment tomorrow night. My people will leave it at the old Sloth dealership in Middleton before midnight." And with that Bás turned around and walked out the door that he had entered.

"Hope his products are better than his people skills," mumbled Drakken as he started digging through the boxes in the room for his missing power cable.


	2. Chapter 2

Refer to Chapter 1 for the Disclaimer.

* * *

"Hey Jeremy have they found someone yet?" asked very energetic teenage girl.

The computer screen in front of her flashed to life and a young mans image came into focus. "Nick is going to meet with the two candidates tonight in that Global Justice base in Colorado."

"So who made the cut?" the girl asked.

"One is that teenage hero that you've been reading so much about, and the other is the woman who helped her in the space invasion thing last year."

The girl practically burst with glee when she heard Jeremy talk, "Kim Possible _and_ Shego."

"Calm down Angel, nothing is final yet, give Nick a chance to talk to them first. After all they may not even want to do it"

Angel fell back into her chair with a huff. "Way to kill the mood Jeremy. You know I'm starting to see more of Nick in you every day."

Jeremy laughed and shook his head, "You better considering that we are identical."

"Just because you look the same doesn't mean that you have to act like him," Angel muttered. "And what makes you think that Shego and Kim Possible wouldn't want to go along with it?"

"As far as Shego's concerned, she may not want to stop working for Drew Lipsky."

"Dr. Drakken, Jeremy." Angel corrected.

"Just because he calls himself a Doctor, doesn't mean that he's earned the title."

"Hey, with a name like Drew he needs all the titles he can get."

Jeremy thought for a moment then answered, "Good point, how about we split the difference and settle for just Drakken."

"Deal," Angel agreed with a smile. "So why wouldn't Shego leave Drakken, after all didn't he retire after saving the world?"

"Well, yes and no," Jeremy answered. "While helping Nick with his research I found that GJ placed Drakken back on their most wanted listings. In fact he is rated higher than ever before."

"Probably because one of his ideas actually worked," Angel considered. "How about we help them out?"

"Who GJ, or Drakken and Shego?"

"Let's go for Drakken," Angel answered. "With him out of the picture, Shego would have less to leave behind."

"And if Shego gets ticked that you busted her boss?" asked Jeremy.

"Nick is asking her to work for someone who has busted her and Drakken more times than anyone can count. Besides we can set it up to look like someone else busted him, and let GJ clean him up afterwards."

"Alright, considering that I actually go for this, how would you propose to go about doing this without anyone, especially Nick finding out about it?" Jeremy asked carefully. "I know that Nick specifically told you to lay low for right now, and I am certain that includes vigilante work."

"Simple," Angel stated getting more and more excited as she planned everything out in her head. "Nick is planning to meet with everyone tonight right?"

"Yeah, at ten."

"Good. Between now and then look for Drakken by way of Hench Co.'s time share lairs."

"Say, _What_?" asked Jeremy.

"Hench Co is the company that makes a lot of the major Villians heavy hardware, along with training their 'Henchmen,' and from what I've found they also construct ready-made-lairs for the more financially strained villains. With Drakken trying to start over again, I'll bet he will try for one of those lairs."

"Ok, I'll try to hack Hench Co's system for any mention of Drakken purchasing a time-share through them, though I still think the whole concept is messed up."

Angel smiled at Jeremy's doubtfulness, "Jeremy we are dealing with guys who are actually calling themselves evil, and a company who is manufacturing tailor-made products for said people. Of course it's messed up."

"Point taken," Jeremy conceded. "So what's the rest of your plan?"

"Drakken probably already started his next take-over-the-world plan right?"

"If he sticks to his old way of doing things, yeah."

"Then it's simple," Angel answered in a matter-of-fact attitude. "I drop in, catch him in the act, tie him up, and call for GJ."

"Just like that?" Jeremy asked doubtfully.

"Just like that."

"By yourself?"

"You think I need anyone?" Angel asked confused.

"Well considering that you not supposed to be doing this at all, and that I know we shouldn't be even planning this, well-YEAH!" Jeremy exclaimed. "Look there is no such thing as the Lone Ranger, alright. If you go in without support, you'll get caught. Even Kim Possible has been caught many time's and she has two other members on her team."

"Alright who do you suggest?"

"Look you find someone who is willing to follow you in and I'll get you the Intel you need, OK?"

"OK," Angel answered quickly.

"You agree?" Jeremy asked surprisingly.

"No. I found someone though."

"No," Jeremy stated his face falling.

"Yes," Angel said smirking.

"No," Jeremy answered more forcibly.

"Pleease," Angel begged pitifully.

"Mmnn" Jeremy moaned, "Let me think on it."

"Thank you!" Angel sang out.

"I said I'd think about it, not that I'd do it," he mumbled.

"Don't worry! You will." Angel promised, smiling widely.

* * *

"Alright Angel I have a probable local for this 'Drakken' guy in Colorado, and a Hoverbike ready to go." Jeremy stated as his image flashed onto Angel's video phone screen.

"A Hoverbike?" Angel asked a little confused. "How did you swing one of Nick's bikes without him knowing?" All of the Hoverbikes were Nick's responsibility and if any of them were missing then he would make certain that the person responsible would find out what the true definition of pain is.

"Don't worry, if this works then he won't mind, and if it doesn't then you'll probably already be dead, so why would you care what Nick would think?"

"'If it works'?" Angel repeated.

"_When_ it works," Jeremy corrected himself. "'sides, you could use the firepower. I've made sure to check that the nose guns and turret are powered up, the mini-rocket pods are loaded, and the cloak is fully functional."

"And the tank is full right?" Angel asked with a smirk.

"_Yes_," Jeremy sighed a little exasperated with the girl. "The fuel cell is ready to go."

"Thank you," Angel practically sang out with the most angelic smile she could muster.

"Sometimes I wonder how you ever got the name Angel."

"Why, don't you think I'm an Angel?" she pouted.

"Look we don't have time to start this right now," Jeremy answered. "I've downloaded the directions to the. . . uh. . . lair into the Hoverbike's computer guidance system, and I'm sending a full layout of the place to your combat suit via its wireless interface incase they are able to jam your uplink there."

"Thanks Jeremy but I'm not going to use the combat suit." Angel apologized. "I've decided to use combat fatigues this time."

"_Combat fatigues_?" Jeremy shouted, "You _can't_ be serious! They won't give any protection and for all we know this Drakken could have an army of guards in there."

"We both know that Drakken is all but broke right now so he can't have very many men down there," Angel assured him. "If he had any money he wouldn't be renting a time share, he would have bought or built his own place by now. Besides I don't want anyone to know I did this. Going in with plain, unadorned black fatigues and greasepaint will prevent anyone from recognizing me in the future. If anything, all the big Henchmen will know is that a small, young, Asian woman in her teens or early twenties wiped the floor with the entire Henchmen staff, along with their boss, and I doubt that any of them will admit that to the authorities, much less their friends, or associates."

"Maybe your right," Jeremy grudgingly admitted. "But I still say that it's too risky. Even a rooky can get lucky shot in during a fight, and one shot is all it takes sometimes."

"Don't worry," Angel said smiling. "By the time they know what's happening it will be too late for them to get any shots off, much less any 'lucky' ones."

* * *

"How could Shego betray me!" ranted Drakken as he stormed around the control room of his lair. "We're an evil family, and families do not betray each other!"

The henchman manning the central computer terminal sighed to himself. Ever since he had come on duty he had been forced to listen to the blue idiot ranting. It probably would not have been so bad except that it seemed Dr. Drakken always seemed to cycle through the same three or four sentences. After three hours or listening all the poor henchman wanted to do was ask someone, anyone, with a weapon to put one of them out of their misery.

"I'll make her pay! She thinks she's all that but she will find that she's. . .ummm. . . not."

_And now he doesn't even know how to finish his own rant_. The henchman thought with another subdued sigh. _Why did I sign up with this moron? Should've signed up with Dementor, I hear they even have a Vision Plan for henchmen who need Lasik_.

The henchman's mental lamenting was cut short as the main gate's alarms started blaring. He quickly switched the main monitor over to the video feed from just inside the gate in time to see the smoke and dust settling from some kind of explosion.

"What's going on!" bellowed Dr. Drakken as he ran up to the computer station.

"I dunno!" shouted the now frightened henchman as he frantically typed in commands, and began to retrieve data from the sensors and cameras in the area around the gate.

As the data began to stream in Drakken glanced up at the live feed from the remaining camera that he had seen the explosion on and noticed a human-size blur flash through the dispersing cloud of debris and dust then quickly move off screen.

"What was that!" Drakken bellowed to the Henchman while pointing at the screen.

"What was what?" the Henchman asked glancing up to see what his boss was asking about.

"That! That! Something moved!" Drakken shouted while repeatedly jabbing his finger at the screen.

"Uh sir you need to be a little more specific. After all that was a massive explosion, and lots of things move when-"

"Just shut up and tell me wha-"

BOOOM

An explosion erupted down the main corridor and rattled anything that was not secured in the room. The henchman ducked forward and covered his head as debris fell from the ceiling while Drakken flew under the computer terminal for cover from whatever force just declared war on him.

"What just happened!" screamed Drakken from his hiding place.

"Someone just set off an explosive charge on the main doors to the facility," replied the Henchman in a surprisingly professional tone considering the circumstances. "Automated defenses are still online, but the security cameras should give us a visual soon."

"I knew I should have finished installing the defenses yesterday," grumbled Drakken as he stood up. "But _NO_ the henchmen _had_ to have the Rec Room finished first."

"Sorry sir, Union rules," replied the Henchman while continuing to bring up the new security feeds.

"No wonder no one has ever been able to take over the world with henchmen," muttered Drakken under his breath. "Alright alert the rest of the henchmen and send them after the intruders."

"Sir first off everyone in the State had to have been alerted by that blast," retorted to Henchman as he uploaded to live feed from all of the corridors cameras onto the main screens. "Second all six of the Henchmen are already in the corridor, look."

Drakken looked up at the display and watched as his Henchmen took up positions in doorways down the corridor from the main entrance in two men teams. Four of the men looked like they had the staffs that Drakken traditionally outfitted his people with while the other two were armed with makeshift clubs that appeared to have been table legs a few minutes ago.

As Drakken continued to watch he saw a dark blur run up to the first team and with almost super human speed he saw a small figure dressed in black disarm and knock out both men and continue down the corridor.

"Boy that girl is good," commented the Henchman at the computer.

"What girl?" Drakken asked in confustion "How do you know that's a girl."

The Henchman looked up at his boss as if Drakken was an idiot. "Sir she may move fast, but it's fairly obvious that she is a girl. Just watch her when she takes out the next team."

"How do you know she'll-" Drakken shut up as he watched the girl take out the group that had clubs and dash off down the corridor again.

"Replay that attack in slow motion again!" he demanded.

The henchman complied and Drakken noticed that his astute employee was right. The attacker was a young Asian woman with short hair, and dressed in black military fatigues complete with combat boots and a web belt. On her back was some kind of rifle that Drakken had never seen, but which seemed like something that Professor Dementor would use. On her belt were several pouches, a combat knife, and a pistol.

Drakken looked at the feed of the last team just in time to see the last Henchman fire off a blast from his staff before being knocked out by the intruder.

"Why is it always teenagers!" Drakken screamed. "First it was Kim Possible and the Blond Kid, and as soon as they grow up this new gir-"

BBOOOOMMMM

Drakken was knocked to his feet as the door to the main corridor was blown off of its hinges and thrown across the room. The henchman at the computer jumped to his feet and ran to the door at the opposite side of the room but was intercepted by the young woman from the security feed. Within a second he was laying unconscious on the floor and the girl was slowly stalking toward Drakken who was cowering in his hiding place again.

"What do you want!" he shrieked.

The young woman stopped cocked her head to the side quizzically. Then a smirk appeared on her face. "You're Dr. Drakken?" she asked snickering.

"Y-Yes," Drakken stammered as he slowly rose to his feet. Then realizing that he was talking to a teenager he raised his head defiantly. "I assume you've heard of me?" he asked in an arrogant tone.

"Yeah and apparently I overestimated you," she stated then looked around before looking back at the mad scientist. "Quite a lot actually."

"What?" Drakken shouted. "What do you mean _Overestimated_. I'm DR. DRAKKEN! I was the man that stopped an Alien Invasion with my own inventions, and my own plan."

"And now Global Justice wants to arrest you for trying to sell the same plant formula to Hench Co., to fund your new Take-Over-The-World scheme." The Young Woman answered a bit distractidly. "Now I've alerted them, and they should be here soon to take you in. So I need you to sit down so that I can tie you up, and then I'll be going."

Drakken laughed at her face, "I never surrendered to Kim Possible, so why should I surrender to you?"

"Two reasons," The girl replied. "First, you did surrender to Kim Possible many times. After all, the only plan that you ever made that worked was when you _saved_ to world. Second, I am not Kim Possible, and if you do not surrender I will just knock you out and then tie you up. Any more questions?"

"You wouldn't!" shouted Drakken nervously.

The Girl only had to take one step forward before Drakken was diving into the chair at the computer console. The Young Woman quickly tied up Drakken with left over computer cable, and then quickly ran out of the remains of the door that she had entered.

* * *

"Jeremy it worked! My first solo mission and it worked!" Angel practically screamed in delight into her flight helmet's microphone as she powered up her Hoverbike.

"I know," groaned Jeremy at the loud volume of the exclamation. "Now can you talk a little slower and softer."

* * *

"Miss Possible just entered the parking garage and should be down here in a few minutes," reported Dr. Director as she entered the small conference room that adjoined her office in Global Justice's regional headquarters in Colorado.

"Maybe I should go tell Miss Go that we are ready then," offered Nick as he rose from his seat at the conference table.

"No need, I've already sent an aide to her room, she should be arriving shortly." Replied Dr. Director as she motioned for Nick to stay seated, and the moved to her own seat at the head of the table.

Due to the circumstances of the meeting Dr. Director had provided Shego a guest room for her convenience. Despite the fact that she was no longer a criminal Shego was very uncomfortable having anything to do with Global Justice and it took quite a bit of coaxing to talk her into staying there, but even that ordeal was preferable to having people commute to and from a top secret installation.

Kim was the first to arrive at the conference room and she immediately went over to D. Director.

"Kimberly a pleasure to see you again," Betty Director said as she rose to greet her.

"Dr. Director, so GJ really is in on this," replied Kim as she shook the Director's hand. "Up until now I thought that this had to be some kind of sick joke."

"This is no joke," said the head of Global Justice as she took her seat and motioned for Kim to do the same. "However we'll discuss all of the details when everyone arrives. In the meantime how are Ronald Stoppable and Rufus doing?"

"Well Ron got some kind of job in D.C. though I don't know much about it. Apparently he had to leave for it in a hurry and wasn't able to catch me on the phone before he left. He left a phone message telling me that he was going there, and that he left a letter with his parents for me that explained everything. I'm planning on meeting them tomorrow to pick up the letter and Rufus."

"He didn't take Rufus?" Betty asked surprisingly. Though she did not know Ron very well outside of the time that she had him under surveillance to learn his secret to success on missions, it was common knowledge that it was almost impossible to separate that boy from his pet.

"I think he wanted to allow Rufus some space," Kim explained. "You see a few weeks ago while Ron was working at Smarty Mart, a customer's daughter had to return her pet Mole Rat since the owner was moving to a Nursing Home. That mole Rat was female, and Rufus was with Ron at the time, and one thing led to another and-"

"I get the picture," Dr Director interjected.

"And it is a disturbing one. Right Doc?" remarked a rather unamused Shego as she entered the room.

"Shego!" exclaimed Kim as she saw the green skinned woman enter. "What are you doing here?"

"Apparently answering the same job ad as you Kimmie." Shego answered as she slouched into the closest chair. "And before we start let me say that there is _NO WAY _that I am working with that girl on anything."

"But we did _soo_ well last time," remarked Kim with an amused smirk.

"That was a one time thing," sighed Shego. "I knew that saving the world would wreck my reputation. Has everyone forgotten that _I AM EVIL?_"

"Oh I don't think that you were ever truly evil," remarked Nick with an amused grin. "Face it Miss Go you are far too professional to have not taken over the world if that was your true goal, and someone who is truly evil would have no quarrel with murder. After all how many thousands of times have you purposely turned down your plasma abilities in order not to seriously injure your opponents, even if it made your missions much harder by leaving them alive?"

"But just ask Kimmie here how many time's I've tried to kill her," Shego smirked. "I lost count a long time ago."

"Again I don't think that you've really tried to kill her," Nick retorted in an almost bored fashion while leaning back in his chair. "Face it Miss Go you're an adrenaline junkie. You're in it for the excitement more than anything else, which is why you will take this job."

"And how do ya figure that?" Shego asked, annoyance creeping into her voice and face.

Because this is more exciting than Drakken's latest plans, it allows you to test yourself against Kim Possible, who is the only real competition in anything, and you'll be going up against the most challenging team that I know of."

Kim had been enjoying the face-off between Shego and Nick but something about Nick's last comment caught her attention. "Wait, what 'team' are you talking about? You didn't say anything about a team before?"

"Yeah," Shego agreed.

"I was coming to that," Nick answered. "About a year ago a team of over forty people from my country was nearly annihilated by a group from our rivals. Because of security reasons I cannot elaborate on that part any more for now. Suffice to say that only five members survived on our side. Right now I am in charge of searching for the rest of the attackers along with GJ. Because of the nature of my investigation I cannot provide the level of security of our citizens like I would have been able to before the Lowardian attack."

"And GJ is also stretched dangerously thin due to the level of chaos around the world after the attack," Dr. Director added. "Many governments were severely weakened by Warmonga's and Warhawk's assault on earth and it has fallen to Global Justice to aid them until they can rebuild their own security forces. I don't need to tell you both that this information is confidential."

"Hey Doc it's no big secret," Shego said, sitting up straighter in her chair. "All anyone has to do is turn on the TV to see the damage."

"Yes, well to get back on track both D. Director and I believe that the same group which attacked the team a year ago will try something again," Nick continued. "Now both Global Justice and my people will continue to look for them, but in the meantime I believe that they may try to target what they consider the weakest target before coming at my team."

"Which is where we come in," Kim said.

"Exactly," Dr. Director answered. "We need the two of you to watch the subject and apprehend whoever is sent after her. Then we can use them to track these terrorists back to their headquarters."

"I don't see any incentive for me in here," Shego remarked.

"Your incentive will be the two things you like best," Nick answered. "Money and action. As I told you earlier today we will pay you very well, you will have plenty of time to yourself, and when this group strikes you will have as much excitement as you could possibly want." Nick paused and smiled before continuing. "That is unless you think that this will be too tough for you."

"Oh, noo," Shego angrily retorted. "Don't you try that trick on me. I've had enough of that From Dr. D."

Everyone paused as a cell phone started ringing. Both Shego and Dr. Director reached for their cell phones before Shego saw that it wasn't hers, and Betty answered the call. "Dr. Director," She answered. "Yes?. . . Really? . . . That's strange . . . Yes keep on it Mr. Du." Dr. Director hung up her phone and then looked around the room and settled her gaze on Shego. "I've just been informed that Dr. Drakken was just arrested by Global Justice agents for conspiring to sell his mutagenic plant formula to Hench Co."

"What?" Shego shouted in anger. "When did he plan that, and why didn't he tell me?"

"He has confessed to making the deal two days ago," Explained Dr. Director. "His Henchmen reported that approximately one hour ago a young woman dressed in a black suit assaulted his lair and subdued everyone there."

"Did they say who it was, or at least describe her?" Kim asked curiously. While Kim did not know of any other crime-fighting teens in the United States, she did know of a couple of young women who were capable of pulling such an act off.

"All they said was that she was a young woman probably of Asian decent, and skilled in hand-to-hand combat tactics."

_Hmm, must be Yori_, Kim considered, though she could not think of any reason the young Ninja would want to risk compromising her school by attacking someone like Drakken.

"Getting back on topic what do you two say?" asked Nick. "Are you in this or not?"

"I'm in," answered Kim. She was never one to step aside when people needed her help. "Though I would like to meet the girl first."

"Me too," mumbled Shego. "After all I've got nothing better to do right now, though the pay had better be good."

"Oh it will be," assured Nick.

"As for meeting the young lady in question," added Dr. Director, "Mr. Du has informed me that she has just arrived and is waiting to come in."

"_Mister_ Du?" Kim asked rather confused. "Don't you mean _Agent_ Du?"

Dr. Director frowned for a minute and then exhaled slowly before answering. "I am afraid not," she replied in a subdued town. "_Mister_ Du was demoted some time ago after an incident, and no I cannot discuss it. He now serves as an administrative assistant."

"He's your _secretary_?" Kim asked. She could not believe it. The number one agent of GJ was now reduced to being the boss's secretary.

"Must have been some screw-up," Shego remarked. She had no idea who this Mr. Du was, but from the way Kim had reacted, there must have been a rather interesting story behind his fall from glory.

"Like I said I cannot talk about it," Dr. Director asserted. Before the conversation could continue she pushed the button on her desk's intercom. "Mr. Du you may send her in now."


	3. Chapter 3

Refer to Chapter 1 for the Disclaimer.

* * *

The door opened and a teenage girl walked into the room and took a seat at the end of the conference table. She was not very tall, Five and a half feet at the most, and she was dressed in plain black T-Shirt with matching shorts. Her jet black hair was cut just short enough to not touch her shoulders and was worn strait down. Dr. Director waited until the girl was seated and then introduced her to Kim and Shego.

"This is the young woman you will be looking after," she began. "She will be going by the name Samantha Kim for her protection. The cover story is that she is the daughter of an immigrant from Korea who married an American wife and moved to a small rural Town in the Southwest. There are thousands of such towns so the likelihood of someone doing a thorough background check to verify the story is small. To further complete the background her father was killed in a car accident when she was young, explaining why she never learned Korean, and her mother died in the Lowardian attack."

"So much for the happy life," muttered Shego.

"We would have liked to have given her a happier background," replied Dr. Director, "However we have learned that the simpler the lie is the harder it is to disprove."

"Whatever," Shego said in a dismissive tone. She really could care less about the background story, though she always found it amusing that the 'good guys' could come up with such depressing cover stories.

"Since we don't want to draw too much attention to her, and believe me there will be plenty when the campus learns that the great Kim Possible is her roommate, we have also developed a cover for Shego."

"Say what?" Shego snapped as she glared at Dr. Director. "No one said anything about me having to be under cover."

"You do want to have some level of privacy, don't you?"

"Yes," Shego replied in a 'No Duh' tone.

"Then don't you think that giving your real name shortly after you achieved celebrity status for saving the world is a bad idea?" Nick asked.

"Alright," Shego unhappily conceded. "But it better not be anything dumb."

"We came up with the name Sharon Gorman, Sam's half-sister on her mother's side."

"Not the best name ever," Shego thought out loud. "Who came up with it?" She would definitely like to meet the person who thought up that cover story and name, if for nothing else than to find out what they were thinking when they came up with it, and if they were high at the time.

"That would be Mr. Du, and no, you cannot touch him," Dr. Director answered hastily. The last thing she needed was Shego going after one of her agents, though she had to admit that Du's sense of imagination was severely limited for an agent.

"Whatever," Shego said as if she didn't care. "So when do we leave and where is this school?"

"You will be leaving from the Middleton airport tomorrow afternoon at five," Dr. Director explained. "We have a small house rented in a neighborhood close to the campus under your cover identities, and Miss Possible's real name. The city has a small airport and the flight will be direct so you should arrive within a couple of hours. My people have arranged for you three to have a car waiting at the airport parking lot, and registered to Miss Go, I mean to Miss Gorman. You will be given the key's to both the house and the car after this meeting, and a map will be in the car with directions to the house.

"At the house you will find you class schedules, instructions on where to get your books, contact numbers, and instructions on how to retrieve money from your accounts, and anything else you need, along with emergency contact information. Any questions?"

The next few minutes were spent with hammering out the fine details and Shego trying to arrange for a better cover story or at least a new name. After everything was settled, or in Shego's case ignored, Kim left to go home, and Shego retired to her quarters.

* * *

Ronald Stoppable groaned to himself as he scanned the selection of food at the cafeteria. _And I thought that the High School food was bad_, he mentally commented as he took a piece of something that was supposed to be Salisbury steak, and a piece of toast that was probably older than his grandfather_. How did I get talked into this again?_

For the last seven weeks Ron had been in the same underground facility and for most of that time he had been asking himself the same question.

It appeared that many of the nations around the world had been dumbstruck to learn that there were actually aliens in space, and that some of those aliens would actually take the time to invade a backwater planet like Earth. In response the United States expanded their new Area 52 project and invited in experts from all of their allied nations in order to begin preparing a strategy for the possible retaliatory strike that the Lowardian people might bring against humanity for the deaths of Warhawk, and Warmonga. After all if those two tried to conquer the world for just embarrassing Warmonga, the penalty for killing her would probably be much worse.

Ron soon found that he had been considered one of the foremost experts on the Lowardians, and having been the one to defeat both of the ones on the planet he was quickly recruited for the project. Since arriving he found that there were experts from every field of study imaginable at the facility. Several of Kim's Father's friends and colleges had also been recruited to help reverse engineer the invader's ship, Dozen's of medical doctor's and other scientists were there to consider the physiological aspects of the aliens, hundreds of military and combat experts were present to develop strategies for the possibility of another ground attack, and even the possibility of engaging them in the air, or space. Even Yori had been brought in as an expert in guerilla and general stealth attacks, and Justine Flanner from high school had been added to the weapons research team.

The hardest part of the whole process for Ron was that in order to ensure the secrecy of the project all connections with friends and family had to be severed for the duration of his stay. He even had to leave Rufus behind since the close confines of the living and working areas did not allow for pets of any kind. With the knowledge that he would be out of touch with the outside world for possibly years, Ron made the difficult decision to break off his relationship with Kim. He left a letter with his parents explaining as much as he could and asked them to send it to Kim before he left. When he was recruited Kim was still overseas in college, and with communication being what it was after the Lowardian attack, he was unable to do more than that.

_How I miss Kim_, Ron thought as he sat down to eat in the cafeteria. He frowned as his mind wondered to a question that he had been pondering since he arrived, _How can a facility this big can be hidden below Washington DC?_

* * *

In a small corner of Middleton in a supposedly abandoned building several figures were moving about. Several men were loading crates and boxes onto a White unmarked moving truck while another two were talking in a corner.

"So I can have all of this?" one of two men asked the other.

"Yes, my other buyer seems to have run into some problems with GJ," the other answered. "So his misfortune is your gain Mr. Hench."

"How much will the extra supplies cost?" Jack Hench asked suspiciously.

"Monetarily nothing, I need to move it out of here so call it a bonus." The other man answered. The supplies needed to be moved out that night, especially with the local authorities on the alert after Drakken's arrest. Well no matter he thought to himself, Drakken was a worthless pawn, all this did was move the time table slightly forward.

"Mr. Hench I do have another proposition if you are interested."

"And what would that be Mr. Bás?" Jack Hench asked.

"I have a bounty I would like taken care of and if you could get the word out about it I could make it worth your while."

"Who are you after?" Hench asked curiously. As a businessman who worked with Mad Scientists, and other people of the evil persuasion, dealing with bounties was a part of daily life. The trick was however to make sure that the one with the bounty on their head never came after you for messing with their life.

"I want to make an example of GJ," Bás answered calmly as if he had been talking about the weather.

Jack Hench's eyes widened what he heard sank in. "Now that _IS_ interesting," He said after a moment. "I know that GJ has been weakened by this last year, but they are still quite an organization to go after."

"I will give one thousand US Dollars for every GJ agent killed once confirmed," Bás continued, disregarding Hench's comment. "Also there will be a five hundred thousand dollar reward for any of the leaders, and finally one million dollars for Dr. Betty Director herself. With that kind of bounty I seriously doubt that any of GJ's personnel will come out of hiding long enough to bother you."

"Maybe," Jack Hench considered cautiously. "Though you may be underestimating Dr. Director and her people." Jack Hench had created his company by taking risk, after all his business was making deals with criminals and sociopaths, but he was always very careful in determining which risks were worth taking. He had dealt with Dr. Betty Director for years, and if there was anything he had learned in that time it was not to underestimate the one eyed woman.

"I might be," Bás mused. "But I am willing to take that risk. I have already presented this same proposal to a 'Big Daddy' Brotherson and he was more than willing to put the word out himself. So here's the deal; both you and Mr. Brotherson will receive a fee for any bounty that is collected through you. The fee will increase for every ten that you collect. The first ten will be ten percent for regular agents and fifteen for leaders, and it will increase by five after that. The fee for Dr. Director will be thirty percent. These terms are not negotiable as Brotherson has already agreed to them. Any questions?"

Jack Hench never liked having someone talk down to him under the best of conditions, and Bás was working what was left of his patience at the moment. Unfortunatly the technology he was providing was lightyears ahead of anything that his people had ever developed, and they had no way to reverse engineer it yet. Also the thought of getting rid of GJ was very appealing to Hench. Without GJ, and with every legitimate government weakened at the moment his profits would skyrocket, after all war was one of the world's three oldest occupations. That decided him, he would play ball with this man for the time being.

"You've got yourself a deal," he answered.

"Good," Bás replied, and without another word he turned and walked away.

* * *

"How do you eat this stuff?" Ron demanded to know as he pushed his plate away and gulped down his drink to wash away his food.

"Dude when you've been surviving off of a military diet as long as we have you learn to appreciate any change in your diet," laughed one of the soldiers at the table as the others nodded in agreement.

Over the past week several of the members of the combat researchers had been meeting in their off time to get to know each other. Being two of the youngest in the group, and the only ones not in any military, Ron and Yori made it a point to join the group as much as possible, but more times than not he found himself feeling a bit isolated form the rest of the people. Of the two of them Yori fit in better since she came from a militaristic background and could relate to many of their experiences, so she did her best to help Ron fit in as well.

"Ron-san you should at least try to get used to the food," she insisted as she bit back a smile.

"Yeah man it's not that bad," agreed one of the other soldiers.

"Dude if you don't think this is bad, I don't even want to know what your military food is like!" Ron complained as he got up to get a refill on his drink.

"Man you should really cut back on the Cokes," the first soldier warned. "Your not in high school anymore, and you need to take better care of yourself."

"He's right Ron-san," Yori agreed. "Try the juice; it will replenish some of the nutrients you've lost in training."

"Yori I know what I'm doing," Ron assured her. "After all who stopped the big green alien dude, and his girl when they landed?"

"Ummm. . ." Remarked the second soldier as he pretended to think about his answer. "I'm guessing it was the idiot who thinks that he's going to get a refill on Soda, when we all know that he's about to go get juice and a bowl of fruit."

"You guys are killing me," Grumbled Ron as he went to get a glass of juice.

* * *

The flight to the college town was uneventful for all those onboard. Shego was about to nod off to sleep until she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Kim was reading a letter and it looked like she was crying.

_Oh great_, she thought with growing irritation. _We're starting an assignment where we both have to be at the top of our game, and 'Princess' picks now to have a breakdown?_ While Shego cared little for anyone, she respected Kim very much. After all Nick, and Dr. Director were right, Shego could very well have killed or seriously maimed Kim and countless others over the years if she had wanted to. Kim herself had been a rather large nuisance on plenty of occasions, but no matter what happened Shego never could find it in her to seriously injure the girl.

That being said, while Shego was annoyed with how Kim's reaction to that letter might affect their mission, she was also still concerned for Kim's wellbeing as a friend would be. _I guess I still do have some of my emotions from being 'Miss Go.'_ She considered. She finally resolved to give Kim her space and see if she could pull herself out of her depression on her own.

The group got off the small airline jet in the college town and stepped into the terminal. It was a simple municipal airport so there was not any checkpoints or very many people to get by, simply one lobby between the tarmac and the packing lot. As the trio made their way to the car that had been provided Kim heard her Kimmunicator go off.

"What's the s-" Kim began to answer before she was interrupted by a very frantic Wade.

"Kim!" he exclaimed. "Have you heard? It's all over the place, Paris, Morocco, Australia, South America-"

"Whoa! Slow down there kid." Shego interjected as she leaned over Kim's shoulder to get a view of the boy genius. "Take a deep breath and start over."

Wade did as he was told and then slowly started again. "Sorry about that," he apologized. "I've been getting reports all over the net about open attacks on Global Justice."

"WHAT!" both Shego and Kim shouted.

"Yeah," Wade confirmed. "Seems someone put a bounty on all members of GJ, and with the way things are worldwide a lot of people are taking the opportunity to make some money. I've even got reports of at least national governments assaulting their regional GJ headquarters to make some money."

"No way," Kim almost whispered in disbelief. For as long as she could remember Kim had always looked up to Global Justice as the pinnacle of good. They had seemed to be as invincible as they were clandestine. The thought that GJ might actually fall seemed impossible. However Kim knew that Wade would never lie to her but she needed something more than mere internet rumors to convince her that things were as bad as he was making them seem.

"Hey, nerd boy," Shego snapped from behind Kim. "Ya got any solid evidence that GJ is in trouble, or are you just working off of some nine year old's net blog?" While never caring much for GJ even when she was a hero, Shego had always cared even less for rumors, so if she was going to buy this fantastic story of GJ being in trouble it was going to be with actual facts.

Wade scowled at Shego but decided against fighting with the woman for the moment. "About thirty minutes ago I got a message from Doctor Director saying that for the moment she has ordered all GJ personnel to go to ground until further notice. She also said that both Kim and you are to stay where you are for the moment. The last thing that she needs is for anyone to compromise their cover by trying to contact them. Apparently Doctor Director believes that there might be some connection between the people that are hunting Samantha and this bounty. Unfortunately she had to go before she could elaborate on it any more. All she could say before cutting the communication is that if you want to help GJ you need to find the people hunting Samantha, and that at least for the moment you're on your own."

"Great," muttered Shego. "This job just gets better and better."

"Is things really that bad for GJ?" Kim asked. She just could not believe that an organization as powerful ad Global Justice could be in this kind of trouble over some stupid bounty. She was also fighting the impulse to go aid the GJ agents. If they were as much trouble as Wade was claiming then they must need more help than Samantha did at the moment.

"Kim the world wasn't in the best shape before the Warmonga attacked," Wade tried to explain. "Now with global hunger and poverty at a historic high, countless millions of people are desperate. For the past year Global Justice has had to come out of the shadows all around the world to help take over many policing duties for the countries that are now too poor to provide security for their people, which have made them more vulnerable to their enemies than they've ever been before."

"But why would so many people do this?" Kim asked. She just could not believe that there were this many evil people that would just kill peace officers for profit.

"Because they're hungry," Shego answered in a surprisingly soft tone, as she put a hand on Kim's shoulder. "These people aren't evil Kim; most of them are probably just starving and scared." Shego would never condone a tactic this low, even when she did work for Drakken. Like any villain she had always wondered what a world without Global Justice would be like, though she had never plotted to take them on directly themselves. Nobody she knew was stupid enough to take on such a large organization as GJ, which was surprising considering the number of Super-Villains trying to plot world domination. Heck, she had even dreamed of causing global chaos herself on many occasions, but now she was beginning to learn that the reality of it was far more disturbing than the fantasy made it seem. _Maybe Nick was right_, she began to realize. _Maybe I was just in it for the ride_. That thought was disturbing as she tried to shove it aside but she found that it was not as easy as it seemed, and that was even more disturbing.

"Miss Possible?" called a young man across the parking lot.

"Yes," Kim answered the man. "Gotta go Wade," She told her friend, as the man approached.

"Ok," Wade replied. "Good luck."

"Miss Possible, glad you made it safely," the man said when he got to the group. "Things seem to be a little, uh, unsettled today."

"Talk about an understatement," muttered Shego just loud enough for the others to hear.

The man frowned as he turned to the former thief. "Look I didn't have to be here waiting for your sorry butts, ok? I was concerned with whether or not you were compromised."

"But none of us were in G-I mean that group," Sam said, her brow wrinkled a little in confusion. She believed that it would make more since for the man to be concerned with his own safety, being a GJ agent, than with the safety of three women who were not even employees.

"Your right," he replied. "However most of our regional headquarters were hit this morning by various groups." He paused for a second, and his expression darkened as he continued. "One of the things that the groups did when they ransacked the place was access our central computer system and then downloaded all the archived files."

"You mean they know about this operation," Shego asked while looking around for some possible threat that might jump out of a bush or shadow."  
"More than likely not," the agent replied. "When Dr-" the young man caught himself when he realized that they were still in a open area. "When 'Betty' realized that something was wrong she ordered an immediate purge of all the archives starting with the most recent. I just waited here to see that you make it safely."

"Thank you," Kim replied with genuine gratitude for the man's concern.

"Yeah well not that you are here I've got to go," the man said, his expression starting to show his nervousness, as he scanned the area for invisible enemies. "I've been given specific orders to go to ground for the time being."

"Good luck," Shego told the man. She was surprised to realize that she actually meant it. _Well no one likes to see someone with their back to the wall, like some kind of wild animal_, she told herself.

The man then handed Shego a car remote and with a muttered goodbye to the three ladies he jogged over to a black SUV and drove off towards town.

* * *

"This is going better than I could have dreamed," Jack Hench said to his secretary as they reviewed the figures for that days net income. Over the past three days the bounties for dead GJ agents were pouring in. As Global Justice's influence waned Jack's profits increased. Already the lack of GJ agents in several countries had led to not only civil unrest but outright civil wars. Organizations such as the European Union and The United Nations were strapped for cash and had been depending on GJ to maintain order in many areas that they could not, and now without their intervention violence was escalating.

As old rivalries and hatreds came out of the woodwork the need for troops and weapons led to many new customers for Jack Hench and his company. While Henchmen may not be a true substitute for battle-hardened soldiers they were an effective temporary solution for the poorer sides in conflicts. Now with a new supply of super-weapons from Bás and an endless supply of unemployed, hungry people out in the world, Jack Hench was doing bigger business than ever.

"Congratulations on your success," Bás said to Jack as he entered the office. Jack's secretary quickly made her exit, carefully making sure to not get too close to Bás as she did so.

Once the secretary had closed the door Jack turned his attention to his guest. "Is there something I can do for you," he asked in an annoyed tone. Though his success had come from the weapons and bounties that Bás had provided, Jack was still resentful of the man for the lack of respect that he gave. Jack firmly believed that he was better than the thug and gun dealer in front of him, but Bás continually seemed to look down on him.

"Oh not at all," Bás said smoothly as he invited himself to a seat in front of the desk. "I only wanted to congratulate you on all of your success, and inform you that I am increasing the bounties for the remaining GJ personnel by fifty percent, an doubling Doctor Director's." he then paused and leaned back in his chair before continuing "However if you _would_ like to expand your success a little further, I might have a proposition that would be to your liking."

Jack Hench took a slow breath and released it. If he had learned anything in his time working with Bás it was to not underestimate the man. No one else world have taken the risk and gone after the most powerful law enforcement agency in the world, but he had, and it not only worked, it had been overwhelming success. However Jack knew that people like this man were not the type to remain behind the scenes forever. One day soon Bás would step out of the shadows, and when that day came Jack planned on being in good favor with the man. After all Bás was too smart to simply have killed, it would take a great deal of cunning, and plotting to eliminate him.

"What do you have in mind?" Jack finally asked.


	4. Chapter 4

Refer to Chapter 1 for the Disclaimer.

* * *

Shego smiled as she looked their new car over as Kim and Samantha finished loading their luggage in the back. At first glance it appeared to be an average green sports car with black leather interior. On closer inspection Shego found that there were several false panels in the dashboard, armrest and the two doors. Behind the panels were several dials, switches, one display screen and an assortment of other surprises. All told it was the epitome of a stereotypical spy car. She decided to finish the inspection at their new house since the other two ladies were done loading the luggage.

Since Shego already had the keys it was silently decided that she would drive, which left Kim to play navigator, and Samantha to occupy the back seat, between suitcases.

The drive was short and took them around the outskirts of the city, to a relatively new residential area. The women were surprised to find that their accommodations was a rather nice redbrick, one story house, complete with a two car garage, and a fenced in backyard.

"Looks like GJ did fair job after all," Shego remarked. She had her suspicions about what kind of place that they would get, and her biggest fear was that it would be along the lines of a cramped duplex, or a rundown, tiny apartment.

Once inside the women found that aside from some of the more basic appliances, such as a washer, dryer, and refrigerator, the place was unfurnished. However there was an envelope full of debit cards and cash, along with a letter explaining that they were intended for purchasing any furniture and supplies that they might need. Along with the envelope there were sever other packets containing all of the records and documentation for Samantha, and Shego's identities, and the information and Debit cards for bank accounts for all three ladies. There was also information explaining that Kim's and Shego's accounts would be used for their payments, and that the reason for the house being unfurnished was that there had not been time to purchase the furniture after the house had been located.

None of the three minded having to shop for their own things, in fact they preferred being able to choose what was going to be in their rooms rather than having to live with someone else's choice. So after unloading the car, the three women piled back into it and took off to the mall for a nice relaxing afternoon of shopping.

* * *

Agent Gamma was grinning widely as he assembled his new toy. Well it was not really a 'toy,' however he was having fun assembling it. Last night Gemini had ordered all of his henchmen to return to the headquarters for the issuing of the new weapons and equipment from Hench Co. Among the things that Gamma had received was a new suit of body armor to go over his uniform, and a plasma weapon. The armor was light weight, and a lot less bulky than the Kevlar that most people used in the field. It was also more form-fitting than most other battle armor designs to allow for greater flexibility, and mobility for the user.

The weapon seemed to be rather large, over three feet long in fact. From what the manual said the weapon would weigh over fifteen pounds once assembled, and would sit on a tripod for stability. It was also designed to be a rapid fire weapon that could shoot a hundred and twenty blasts of plasma a minute. He was told while receiving the gun that it was designed to be used by a two person team, and that in the field two more people would operate with the gunner and assistant gunner in order to provide cover during a firefight.

All Agent Gamma wanted to do at the moment was try out his new gear in a real combat situation. As far as he new this was the first time that the big boss had ever issued this kind of equipment, or had allowed his people to even participate, much less instigate a direct confrontation with Global Justice. Now Gamma and his team were sitting in a dark room assembling their cannon in front of a window that faced GJ's Main Headquarters Complex, just across the street.

If anyone had told Gamma that today he would be firing on a GJ facility, he would have laughed in their face. The mere thought of going toe-to-toe with Global Justice was ridiculous. They were untouchable as far as anyone was concerned, and they had been getting stronger and stronger over the last year. Yet now they were being attacked on all sides, and were actually falling. It was like watching a large animal being stung to death by a swarm of insects; harmless on their own, yet lethal in a large enough quantity.

As soon as the weapon was assembled the hard part would began. His team was expected to wait until they were certain that all of the GJ personnel that were fleeing to the facility arrived, and then assist in the assault on the complex. Gemini and his new allies had discovered that all known surviving GJ personnel were fleeing to four different locations; one in Asia, one in Europe, one in Australia, and the one he was stationed at. Of the four this one was the only one that they had located; the others' specific locations were still a mystery.

* * *

On the way to the only mall in the college town Kim had noticed a fairly large furniture store, and within minutes the three ladies were pouring over the extensive selection of beds, and other furniture supplies.

With the fairly large budget at their disposal, price was definitely not an issue, and it took very little time for Shego to find her bedroom set. She chose a modernistic theme, while Kim went for a more wholesome, hardwood sleigh-bed, and matching solid Red Oak bedroom set, complete with a large desk.

Surprisingly the one that was having the hardest time shopping was Samantha. Originally she had hung back quietly while the other three women did their shopping, but now that she was the only one left, she seemed very nervous about making any selection at all.

"Are you sure that you want _that_ one," Shego asked Samantha dubiously, after Samantha picked the plainest, cheapest, dresser in the entire store.

"Is there something wrong with it?" asked Samantha nervously; as she checked the item for some defect that Shego might have seen.

"What Shego means is why would you want something so plain, with so many nicer ones here?" Kim explained patiently. After reading Ron's letter she wasn't really in the mood to deal with anyone, but she just couldn't find it in herself to be anything but supportive of the obviously introverted girl.

"Yeah," Shego agreed dismissively. "What she said."

"Uh, well, I guess I could look for a better one," Samantha mumbled as if she were unsure.

"Kid, have you ever shopped before?" Shego asked Samantha. She was getting tired of waiting for the girl to find something, and she just wanted to move on the next store. She had never seen a teenage girl as hesitant as Samantha seemed about going shopping before. The kid would head straight for the most Spartan items in the store automatically, whether it be the most plain and hard bed, or the most utilitarian desk.

"Is this really the style that you like?" Kim asked her softly. She really did not think that any normal teenage girl would want her room to be plainer than a motel, though Samantha seemed insistent on being the one to change her mind.

"Well," Samantha started while looking down at her shoes. "I suppose that the one over there is nice," she muttered while glancing over to a southwestern style bedroom set made out of Mesquite.

"Wow," Shego remarked. "Went from one that was designed to look boring, to one that was designed to have holes in it."

"I think that it looks very nice," Kim spoke up in a supportive tone. Now that she was making progress with Samantha's timidity, she didn't want the girl to backslide.

"Well I guess it fits," Shego conceded. "After all we are in Texas."

* * *

After paying for the furniture, and making arrangements to have it shipped to the house later in the afternoon, the three ladies went to a store that one of the sales representatives recommended to purchase the linens and other supplies. Kim and Shego found their bedroom supplies fairly quickly, however they found the same problem with Samantha as before. Finally Shego decided that if she was going to be the girl's big sister then she was going to act like one.

"Come with me," Shego ordered as she led the way down an aisle that had a large variety of bed sheets. Samantha followed obediently as Shego chose several sets of fine silk sheets, and then continued on to the towels and bath accessories. Kim was actually surprised that Shego took care to consult Samantha on each item, and did not just pick her own style. It was defiantly not the Shego that she knew, it was almost like the Miss Go that she remembered.

"And tomorrow we are soo taking you shopping for some new clothes," Shego stated as the group moved on to the cooking supplies area.

"What's wrong with my clothes?" asked Samantha.

"Nothing's wrong with them," assured Kim.

"Still, I am taking you shopping for some new outfits _little sister_," Shego stated firmly. _Hey I could get used to having a sister_, she considered. She would never admit it, but she had actually enjoyed hanging out with Kim back when she was Miss Go. Being the only girl in the family growing up, she had always been the tomboy, and it was nice to hang out with other girls every now and then, especially after being the only woman in Drakken's organization.

* * *

After the ladies left the store they went to a sit-down restraint for lunch. After getting to their table, Kim and Shego got their next shock of the day. They noticed that Samantha sat ramrod straight in her chair as if at attention, with her arms down at her sides, and eyes looking forward.

"Uh, Sam, are you alright?" Kim asked with more than a little concern in her voice.

"Yes Ma'am," Sam answered looking Kim in the eyes in confusion. "Why do you ask?"

"It could be because you're creeping us out over here," Shego answered almost under her breath. Just when she thought she was bonding with the girl, she had to go and flip out or just do something creepy.

"Huh?" Sam asked, no totally confused as to what the other two women were talking about.

"The way you're sitting," Kim explained.

"Yeah you look like you're in the Army or something," Shego agreed.

Samantha glanced down at herself, trying to see what the two older women were talking about.

"Sam relax!" ordered Shego. "Slouch, lean back, at least touch the back of your chair. Just pretend to enjoy the comfort of the plastic seat."

"Yes Ma'am," Samantha muttered as she leaned back in her chair, looking anything but comfortable.

"Oh, and that's another thing," Shego continued now that she was on a roll. "Most sisters in this part of the world refer to each other by name, not 'Ma'am'. My own brothers don't call me that. So for now on, we three are on a first name basis, ok?"

"Yes. . . Sharon," Samantha answered with some difficulty. As soon as she said Shego's alias Kim started to snicker behind her hand.

"Hey, no laughing Kimmie," Shego barked to the hero. Who was turning red form all of the laughter.

"Yes Ma'am!" Kim firmly stated with a mock salute.

"Watch it _princess_," Shego warned while pointing a spork at the younger woman as if it were a weapon.

"Whatever you say _Sharon_." Kim replied, emphasizing the name.

"Oh, this is going to be a long assignment," Shego groaned, while collapsing in her seat.

* * *

"Come on Stoppable! Move it!" shouted one Ron's team members as he passed over the hill top.

For the last three days the team had been conducting a war game exercise with a local military unit in a forest area in the Appalachians. The team had been outfitted with a specialized laser tag systems that were linked to a GPS system so that the field commanders and instructors would be able to track the 'casualties'.

So far Ron had managed to find a way to gripe about every aspect of the mission since they landed. When they parachuted into the landing zone, Ron managed to snag a tree and wined about being left behind, until Yori reminded him that he still had the lotus blade on him. The when they made camp Ron sat in an ant colony and immediately began dancing around while wining and hollering about the insects that were making their way into his boxers. Then later when the team ate before going to sleep he began to gripe about having to eat the worst tasting 'beef stew' ever created.

Day two was even worse for the team, and now that day three was upon them even Yori was starting top lose patience with the blonde boy. It seemed that ever since Ron had arrived at Area 52 he had been carrying around a chip on his shoulder. He stayed away from the team, for the most part, when they were not training, preferring to stay in his room. He made it a point to move slower when reprimanded for anything. He seemed to gripe about the littlest things, and he never even smiled anymore.

Yori had heard from a couple of the other team members that if Ron did not change his attitude soon, that he would be scrubbed from the program, and sent home. They believed that is he did not straighten up his act that he would just be too much of a liability. After the last two days even she was starting to agree. However Yori managed to talk the team leader into allowing her a chance to work with Ron for a little while longer before he made the decision to cut him from the team. She still believed that the work they were doing was important, and that Ron would later regret being dropped if it came to that. Although it seemed that every time she had tried to have a serious conversation with the boy since they joined the team he had always changed the subject or brushed her off with a smile and a lame excuse to escape the discussion.

"Poison Ivy!" Ron cried as he jumped up from a bush that he had stumbled into. "Why's it always Poison Ivy!"

"What part of stealth do you not get Stoppable," hissed the team leader. He was starting to regret his deal with Yori. If Ron didn't learn to keep his mouth shut, then the whole team would be 'wiped out' soon.

"Ron-san that is not Poison Ivy," Yori assured the distressed blonde.

"It isn't," Ron asked quizzically. He thought the little growths next to the bush were young Poison Ivy plants.

"Dude Poison Ivy has three leaves together and they're broader than those," explained one of the exasperated team members in a low tone.

"Then what're these," asked Ron.

"Cannabis," the man answered as if it were obvious.

"Cannabis?" echoed Ron.

* * *

The ladies stopped by an electronics store to buy a large television along with a DVD player and several movies before returning to the house. Shego ended up picking out the brand of TV along with size, and then she and Kim each bought two of their favorite movies. The real adventure came when they found that loading a big screen TV in a sports car is a chore in the most ideal circumstances, however loading one in a car with three full grown women, who have already been shopping is impossible. Fortunately the store offered same day delivery so that disaster was thankfully adverted.

For the evening Shego decided to order pizza, and watch her two favorite films, The Memo Pad, and the original Bricks of Fury. Samantha agreed to the purposal, while Kim slipped off into her room to assemble her bed and to mope for a few hours in private. Shego did not understand the reason for Kim's attitude, nor did she really care, but she assumed it had something to do with her blonde sidekick's absence.

Over the past year Shego had been watching Kim's career on the news. After all it was the only thing in the headlines that was not completely depressing. From what she could see Team Possible had been having a difficult time keeping together ever since Kim went to school abroad. For the first few months it seemed that Ron had managed to find ways to commute to several missions, but slowly his attendance seemed to have declined.

_Maybe that was his way of calling it off with the girl_, Shego considered._ I guess he must have finally spelled it out for her in the note she was reading on the plane_. Though she would never admit it out loud, Shego had a soft spot for Kim ever since her time as Miss. Go the substitute teacher. It was not a large one, after all she always told herself evil and good can never be friends, but it was enough that she did not want to see the other girl hurt like this. _That's it, time to stop thinking abut it_, she decided._ As long as Kim is still at a hundred percent that's all that matters_.

* * *

The mission ended badly for Ron and the others shortly after he tripped over a wire that had been strung between two trees. The wire had activated a 'bomb' that sent a kill message for anyone in the immediate vicinity of the devise to the instructors, while setting off a large flash-bang grenade for effect. The survivors of the bomb were quickly wiped our by the enemy team with small arms fire. Even Yori was 'killed' in the trap.

The team managed to get back to Area 52 without hurting Ron, but it took restraint on some of the member's part. Ron sat off by himself on the airplane ride and tried to sleep for most of the trip, while Yori tried to think of some way to salvage her friend's status on the team. She just knew that Ron needed to stay with the team. She knew that he was mourning the loss of something important, and was letting that affect his performance, and relationships at the base.

She thought back to her first few days at the Ninja Academy and then it hit her as to what the problem might be. When she had first left for training she had only been a young child, but she recalled that it was the first time that she had ever been away from home; like this was the first time that Ron had really been away from home. Nearly every time that Ron had left home it had only been for weeks, or maybe a month at a time, and even with those excursions he had had either Rufus or Kim with him.

Like when Yori had been taken from her family for life as a Ninja, Ron was feeling the effects of losing his loved ones, especially Kim Possible. Now Yori understood the problem, but the hard part was beginning; how to knock a grown man out of his depression, before it destroyed his life._ Well in Yamanouchi it was common to literally 'knock' some sense back into a student who knew better,_ Yori considered as she glanced over to where Ron was sitting._ But that will not work with Ron, will it?_

* * *

The pizza arrived later in the evening and Samantha managed to talk Kim into leaving her room for the food. Shego noticed that the young hero had been crying in her room but decided to not talk about it for the moment, however she made a mental note to watch the girl in case it was something worse than a breakup.

After the women finished their meal Kim went back to her room and the other two retired to their own rooms to arrange their beds before crashing for the night. They were all fairly tired from the long day of shopping and traveling, and were starting to show it.

However before retiring for the evening Shego made it a point to check on Samantha to be sure that the teen had managed to assemble her bed on her own. Much to the older woman's amazement the teen had not only managed to assemble the bed, but had also rearranged the entire bedroom set on her own.

_The girl is a lot stronger than she looks_, Shego noted as she went back into her room.

* * *

Agent Gamma was practically beaming as he listened to the orders coming across the radio. His team had received instructions to begin the assault on the Global Justice facility in exactly forty-seven minutes. Also all members were informed that they would receive sixty percent of the bounties that they collected during the operation. He thought that it was a perfect caper. Most federal agency's seemed to have taken a blind eye to GJ murders during the last few days. Most people suspected it was a political move since many nations had recently declared Global Justice a renegade militia, and were using that excuse to not interfere themselves. If the United States suddenly supported this 'renegade' group then it would be standing against the other nations, and right now it seemed that no one wanted to have any more potential enemies then they already had.

So in a little less than an hour Agent Gamma and his team were going to make a small fortune, courtesy of their old nemesis, Global Justice and maybe Doctor Director herself.


	5. Chapter 5

Refer to Chapter 1 for the Disclaimer.

* * *

Dr. Betty Director sighed in frustration as she leaned back against one of the walls of a storage room in the heart of what was once the world headquarters of Global Justice. Seven days ago the organization was the most powerful force for the cause of world peace on the planet. It had expanded over the last year from a clandestine international police force that mainly focused on counterterrorism and hunting down Super Villains, by offering humanitarian services, intermediate negotiations, aiding local police and security forces, supplementing UN forces along with other international forces in their peacekeeping roles, and had even been brought in as an advising group to the UN security council. All of that had literally changed over night.

Six days ago Doctor Director had been woken up to a phone call from one of the agents on duty shortly after midnight. He reported that multiple groups had posted bounties on all members of GJ. While it was not new to have rewards out for GJ agents deaths, after all Doctor Director had long since lost count on the number of times someone had wanted her killed, the sheer number of bounties, the amount of money offered for each kill, the organized distribution of the information about them, and the timing of all of this, had just been too much to combat.

All told it had been like putting gasoline on a flame. Global Justice had just angered too many people in the last year, and now they all had incentive to get their revenge. Within hours several of GJ's regional headquarters were over run. Two were hit by rioters, one was over run by a militia group that GJ put out of business, and two were seized by the militaries of the hosting nations. The local offices were taken by everything from gangs, to rioters, militias, professional bounty-hunters, soldiers, even police and private citizens. It was just too horrific to believe.

Now Betty Director saw herself as a well rounded individual when it came to education, and she knew her history, and the only time that she could recall anything like this happening before was when all of Europe turned against the Knights Templar, the first real bankers and international police force in Medieval Europe._ And who says history doesn't repeat itself_, she thought to herself.

At the moment Dr. Director was huddled with all that was left of the headquarters' personnel in the basement for what seemed like days, though it couldn't have been for more than an hour. She had been supervising the destruction of all the records within the facility, along with the final evacuation of the staff when they were hit five hours ago. What followed was pure chaos as GJ security forces and the intruders faced off in vicious door-to-door combat throughout the extensive facility. The entire facility consisted of five buildings, but GJ lost all but one within thirty minutes.

Doctor Director did not even bother calling for the police to come to their aid, since she was not even sure which side the police would come help. Even if the police did help them, the call would only serve to alert other potential bounty-hunters of where they were.

Now all that was left of the staff was five agents and two secretaries, and three of the agents were wounded. Betty closed her one good eye as she thought about the last few hours. After they lost the other buildings Doctor Director had ordered Mr. Du to set off the charges attached to the computer mainframe and to then take the remaining security forces in the building and flee. She had then run to the furnace room with her escort to retrieve the two of the secretaries that were incinerating the last of the paper records. After arriving at the secretary's location she heard muffled explosions coming from somewhere above and assumed that Du and his team did their job. _Du_, she thought. _There aren't very many people that would stick it out in GJ after screwing up and being demoted like he was. After this I'll see to it that he gets his status as an agent back._ At that thought she had to smile. After all to think that far ahead was to be very optimistic indeed.

After the charges had detonated her team had run into another firefight which eventually led them to the room they currently inhabited. So far no one had discovered them, but that was only a small bit of comfort, all things considered.

Suddenly everyone in the room froze as they heard someone outside trying to open the door.

* * *

"This school is awesome!" Samantha practically cheered. She was currently touring the main campus with Kim and Shego and was in the process of wearing the two women out. They had started with a walk around the perimeter of the main campus, and Shego started to gripe once she discovered that it was actually a force march of over four miles. Then Sam decided that they needed to visit every building on both the main campus and the West side campus, and the Veterinary school. It was at that point that Shego stopped a ROTC cadet and asked him how many buildings were in the university. When he answered over two hundred Shego made it clear in no uncertain terms that if Samantha thought she was going to drag her to every one of those buildings she was out of her mind.

Now they were on a slightly smaller tour of just the main buildings, to be followed by a dinner at one of the restraunts of Shego's choice, and at Kim's expense. With fall classes still a full month away there was still plenty of time to see the sights, and Shego had no problem with that as long as no one wanted to do it all within the same day.

"Did you know that if you count all of the graduate and undergraduates on campus that there are almost fifty-thousand students?" Sam asked as she read from the handbook that they received at the Student Center. "And that the campus is within only two hundred miles from three of the ten of the largest cities in the United States?"

"Fascinating," Shego muttered. _I can't believe I was talked into this_.

"Shego, be nice" Kim whispered to Shego as Sam wandered farther ahead. "After all weren't you just a little excited when you went to college?"

"It isn't that," Shego corrected Kim. "Well it isn't just that." She corrected herself.

"Then what is the Sitch?" Kim asked curiously.

"Before we left the house I was catching up on my alias," Shego explained. "And I'm going to be a Kinesiology instructor for one of the running classes," She groaned.

* * *

"Jacobs! This one's stuck!" someone shouted "Get the repeater over here!"

Betty Director bit back a groan as images of the intruder's Plasma Repeater Cannons came to mind. They were large guns that sat on a tripod. Though it took a few seconds to charge once set up, the rapid firing plasma blasts could melt though granite like butter, and the cannons had done just that to more than one GJ agent during the attack. Betty had never seen weapons and armor like these attackers had used. It seemed like nothing could pierce the body armor, and the weapons they used could destroy everything that the defenders had tried to stop them with. The agents had been able to slow down the attackers by shooting between the pieces of armor, but in the end the superior tools that the enemy had won the day.

Dr. Director saw her remaining people take up positions to fire on whoever came through the door, and she did the same, as they heard the wine of one of the plasma cannons charging.

BANG

The agents looked at each other as they heard the familiar sound of a shotgun explode outside the door.

"You!" shouted the voice of the man who had called for the cannon. "Hands in the air before-"

BANG

Another shotgun blast sounded, followed by the sound of something hitting the door, then sliding to the floor. There was a few seconds of silence followed by the sounds of something heavy being dragged away from the door, and a familiar voice called out.

"Hello in the room! My name is Nicolas Cridon! Uh, you might find this hard to believe but I'm here to-"

"Nick this is Betty!" Doctor Director hollered back, relief evident in her voice. "I've got wounded people here who need immediate medical attention!"

She quickly got to her feet and ran to the door, and with the aid of the secretaries she removed the hastily installed barricade.

Nick quickly entered followed by two other people. All three were dressed in what looked like black padded motorcycle gear with matching ski-masks long with night-vision goggles, though Doctor Director had long since learned to never take anything with Nick at face value._ Those outfits probably have more tricks than Kim Possible's Battle Suit ever will_.

"My people are sweeping the complex as we speak," Nick explained as his people began treating the wounded agents. He removed his mask and looked at the Director seriously as he continued. "So far it looks like your people are the only survivors still in the area." He paused and then smirked. "While we were approaching my scouts reported seeing Mr. Du destroying the main computer core along with the hanger. Then they said they saw him running out of the complex with his team like the devil himself was chasing them."

"Then he is alive," Betty sighed in relief.

"Yup," Nick confirmed, "and I've got to say the Olympics don't have anything on that boy, he can really move when he wants to."

As he finished talking another one of Nick's people arrived with three stretchers to transport the wounded agents with. Since Nick's people were better armed, and fresh, it was silently decided that they would provide cover while the GJ personnel would carry the stretchers. As the two secretaries and two unwounded GJ agents took their stretchers, Betty and one of Nick's people took the third.

Nick put on his mask as one of his people took point just outside of the door. The other person stayed in the room to serve as a rear guard and Nick stayed just behind the first one so that he could have a better view of everyone in case of trouble. As the group slowly made their way down the underground corridor Betty was certain that everyone in the state could hear her heart beating, considering how loud it sounded to her. Every breath she took, and every step she had to take sounded incredibly loud in the silent hallways.

"Get up Ron-san!" shouted Yori as Ron hit the mat again. Earlier in the day one of the soldiers had confronted Ron about how he didn't believe th

* * *

at Monkey Kung Fu was really a viable fighting style in the modern world, much less in the current project, and Yori being the gracious person that she was, volunteered Ron for a demonstration with said soldier. After five rounds with the guy Ron was ready to kill Yori for the favor.

"Ya know, if you keep this up I'll have to stop taking it easy on you," Ron said while trying to smile as he picked himself back up.

"Dude just give it up already," the soldier sighed.

"Seriously man," Ron continued. I'm just going easy on you for the sake of your pride, but if you keep this up I'll just have to go ahead and end it."

The soldier just got back into his stance and waited for Ron to make the first move.

"Come on Ron-san you can do it!" Yori cheered.

_What did I do to deserve this?_ Ron wondered as he moved in again.

* * *

As the group made it to the end of the first corridor, and turned onto another they began to see signs of the battle that had been fought hours earlier. Bodies were laying throughout the area where they had fallen. The shear number of cartridge casings told how valiantly the GJ personnel fought, and the number of the dead told how high the price of their resistance was.

It was at this point that Nick paused and held a hand to his right ear. He nodded once subconsciously and then motioned for his point-man to lower his weapon. From farther down the corridor two more members of Nick's team came slowly weapons up, and watching every angle around them, front and back. When they reached Betty's group the leader lowered her weapon and pulled her mask back off of her face while the other continued to guard the way they came down.

"Sir, we've just finished our round, and the area's secure from here to the transport," She reported to Nick. She lowered her voice a little as she continued her report, "There were no survivors in our area."

"What did you discover about the attackers?" Nick asked. He already had a good idea about what was happening, but he wanted Betty to hear the report. She had very little time during the attack itself to conduct an investigation, and he believed that she deserved to know why her people were killed.

"We've found men wearing uniforms of the Worldwide Evil Empire, Professor Dementor, Hench Co., even two of Doctor Drakken's red were in the area. One team also reported seeing a monkey in some kind of black outfit hiding in a tree spying on the area before being chased off."

"So GJ was defeated by a bunch of thugs," Betty whispered. She could not believe it. Just one year ago the mere mention of the name Global Justice would have sent that scum scurrying into the shadows like rats, yet now they were combining forces- _Wait_, she realized. '_Combining Forces,' These people do not combine forces easily. They all want to take over the world, and _none_ of them share power_. This was bigger than she originally thought. Someone, or some group, had managed to recruit several of the worlds most dangerous criminals, outfit them with an arsenal of futuristic super-weapons and then managed to get them to work as a team.

* * *

The group managed to get to the main floor without incident; however as the approached one of the back door to the building they ran into a small team of Henchmen armed with one of the repeating plasma cannons.

"Take cover!" Doctor Director called to her people.

Nick and his team took up firing positions around the door that stood between the survivors and the cannon. Betty growled in frustration with the situation. One room stood between her people and freedom, and a group of her brother's scum was blocking the way.

It took a mere few seconds for the cannon's fire to tear through the walls surrounding the door, and Betty checked her pistol's magazine to see if she had enough rounds left to put up a fight. As she slammed a new round into the chamber on the gun she looked up and saw Nick priming a grenade. As she watched Nick motioned for the man on the other side of the doorframe to open fire, which he gladly did. When the cannon's gunner returned fire on the team member's position Nick used the distraction to throw the grenade at the cannon's position.

As the cannon exploded Nick's people charged the remaining Henchmen while the GJ survivors picked up the stretchers and made for the door.

The rescuers led the way outside and towards a waiting tour bus that was sitting in the street just outside the ruined complex.

"The bus driver is one of my guys," Nick explained. "He'll take you to the nearest GJ controlled hospital. Seems like someone wiped the hospitals' locals from the database before they were compromised."

"Are you sure that we won't be compromising them by going there?" Betty asked. Though she knew that per people needed medical attention, she did not want to endanger anyone else today. Too many people had already died.

"Don't worry," Nick assured her. "All the attackers that were still here when my people arrived are dead. The only survivor was that weird monkey and it is long gone. We've done a full sweep for any active surveillance sweeps, along with infrared to locate any survivors. Also the bus is clean, as far as anyone's concerned; it is just being rented for a senior citizens group's tour of the Midwest."

Betty wanted to argue more, but she was just too exhausted. She muttered a heartfelt thank you to Nick and then boarded the bus. Nick watched the vehicle until it was out of sight and then went back into the complex with his people to police the area of all of the advanced armor and weapons.

"This is going to be a looong night," he muttered.

* * *

"Why did you do this to me?" Ron moaned as Yori bandaged his right arm and shoulder. There had really not been very much of a fight. Ron had been knocked down a total of nine times before finally passing out. The soldier he was fighting had wanted to just walk away the first time, but Ron had felt some bizarre sense of pride that would not allow him to just walk away without having given it his all. After he had lost consciousness Yori had Ron taken back to his room where she began tending to his wounds. The antiseptic woke him up quickly but she refused to allow him to leave his bed until she finished.

"I only wished for you to defend your honor," replied Yori as she finished wrapping his arm. There wasn't a part of Ron's body that wasn't bruised, but in the last fall he had managed to dislocate his arm.

"What honor Yori?" Ron argued. "I just made a fool out of myself in front of the whole team!" As if life wasn't difficult enough with losing Rufus and Kim on this project, now he was back to being a total loser in one day.

"Ron-san," asked Yori quietly asked after a moment of silence passed. "Why did you want to join this team?"

"Huh," Ron asked totally confused.

"Why did you want to join," Yori repeated more firmly, as she moved to sit in front of him on the bed.

"Well," Ron tried to answer but just couldn't find an answer. The whole thing had happened so quickly. Before he was asked to join he had been working at trying to pass his classes at Lowerton Community College while working at Smarty Mart, and waiting to hear from Kim by phone every weekend. Even the occasional missions he went on with her were too brief to help the loneleness he felt. His life had just felt totally empty, and despite Kim's assurances that everything would be alright, his time away from her continued to eat at him.

"You wanted to prove yourself," Yori answered for him.

"Yeah, I guess so," Ron finally answered glancing down.

"Yet," she continued, while pulling his chin up so whe would have to look her in the eyes, "Since you have arrived you have not been applying yourself to your fullest capability have you?"

"Well, uh," Ron stuttered and then glanced down again, "No Yori, but it's just so hard to fit in here. I mean I'm no warrior, or scientist, I'm just-"

"You are just Ron Stoppable, the True Mystical Monkey Master, and the Conqueror of the Lowardians," Yori finished for him.

"Yeah that's just it," Ron admitted. "I just don't feel like any of those things. I never learned how to use any of those powers, and I really don't know how I beat those alien dudes." He moaned and fell back onto the bed, "All I do know is that I've never felt so, well, isolated."

Yori waited patiently for Ron to finish and then took a deep breath. "Ron-san, when you first went to the Yamanouchi you had a hard time adjusting there as well didn't you?"

"Well, yeah," Ron answered as he sat back up. The time at the ninja school was very hard on him, but it had also been exciting since it was thee that he met Yori, and Sensei. Also it was easier because he still had Rufus with him.

"And you did well there," Yori continued. "I know that this time is different, as every experience in life is, but like last time you do have friends with you, more so than when you went to Yamanouchi. Don't forget that." When she finished talking she stood up and walked to the door.

Ron continued to sit ion the bed thinking about what she said, but when Yori got to the door he spoke. "Yori?"

"Yes?" she asked.

"Thanks,"

"You are welcome."


	6. Chapter 6

Refer to Chapter 1 for the Disclaimer.

* * *

Kim, Shego and Samantha had just managed to sit down to a nice dinner at one of the more expensive restaurants in town when Kim's Kimmunicator went off.

Kim answered the call as the waiter was walking over to their table. "Wade I'm about to order here, what's the sitch?"

"Kim you just got a hit on the website from the military," Wade announced.

"The military?" Kim and Shego echoed.

"Yeah it seems that the military is being used to rescue members of GJ that are US citizens, along with those who are from allies of the US," Wade explained. "The deal is that they need your help on this case."

"Something that the army can't handle?" Shego asked.

"No it's just that Kim's name carries a lot of weight and they hope that her asking for the release of some of the GJ agents being help captive will prevent them from having to use force."

"Sounds like a good idea," Kim replied. "So do you have a ride for me? My parents are still borrowing mine."

"They should have a ride outside the restaurant," Wade replied.

* * *

The ride that Kim received was a black sedan driven by two men that Kim immediately recognized.

"Agent Smith and Agent Smith? Kim asked in confusion as she sat down in the back of the car.

"Sorry about the deception Miss Possible, but we could not allow any security leaks in this case," the balder of the two agents explained as he started the car and began to speed towards the airport.

"So this is not about saving GJ agents?" Kim asked.

"No this is about saving agents, just not in the way we told your friend," the other Smith answered. "You see these people are not being held outside the nation, so the military does not have the jurisdiction to intervene."

"So you want me to do it?" Kim guessed.

"In a way," the first Smith agreed. "We need a neutral party to negotiate for the release."

"Why haven't the local authorities handled it," Kim asked. "Surely they must have handled hostage situations before?"

"Because they are the ones holding them," the second Smith angrily answered.

"What!" Kim exclaimed. "Why? How?"

"Greed," answered the first Smith through gritted teeth as he pulled up to the jet. "We will answer all of your questions in route to the town. Now come on we have a jet ready."

* * *

While flying to the town where the agents were being held the two Agent Smiths explained the situation to a very confused and angry Kim Possible. Apparently a team of agents were working with a team of international specialists to clean up ground water that had been contaminated from leakage left behind from destroyed Lowardian battle robots. When the bounties had been issued on GJ personnel they were working near a small community in the southwest, and had been taken into 'protective custody' by the local authorities.

Shortly afterward the team was charged with several crimes including violation of gun laws, drug trafficking, and over a dozen other false charges. Both Agent Smiths had then been dispatched to clean up the mess but had found that the County DA, Judge, and Sheriff were not only against the idea of dropping the charges, but were planning on both a public trial, and incarceration in the low security county jail.

It took very little imagination for the agents to figure out that the plan of these men was to allow for the GJ personnel to meet with 'accidents' while in jail, and then collect the awards quietly.

What the agents needed Kim to do was to negotiate a delay in the proceedings while the agents either arranged for a jail-break for the agents, or for Kim to do it herself.

Unfortunately when the three arrived at the town in question the trial was already in session.

* * *

Ron and the rest of the military tactics research team were shocked during a surprise briefing from Area 52's commander General Simms, at the base's amphitheater. Because of his leadership during the crises at Area 51 two years earlier the General was allowed to command the new Area 52. Ron personally believed that the real reason for the General getting the credit for defending the base from Drakken was Kim's involvement being covered up; however since he couldn't prove it he kept his belief to himself.

The briefing itself had been General Simms's way of informing the team that they were being activated as the United Nations' first covert Recon in Force and Rescue Unit. Since all the members had been pulled from member nations of the UN it made since that they would answer to the organization; though Ron was rather uncomfortable with the new arrangement.

The General had also informed the team that their first mission was to escort several members of the now officially disbanded Global Justice to a small city in the American Southwest, and that they would be leaving immediately after the meeting.

After the General finished his speech he stepped down to allow the new RFRU commander, a German Army Captain named Shultz, to step up and have a few words with his command.

"People I know that this is not what you signed up for," he began in flawless English. "However when we started this program the world had Global Justice to aid the world, and with their absence our home countries are going to have to take on the responsibility of international security once again.

"Now due to the size of our Unit we will be split into three platoons. I will be in overall command of the Unit, while Lieutenant Hendricks will command first platoon, Lieutenant Kim will command Second Platoon, and Lieutenant Daniels will command of Third Platoon.

"Third Platoon will be given the first assignment, and for those of you in the platoon LT Daniels will tell you the details in the main hanger after the meeting. The listings of platoon assignments are posted on the bulletin board outside the room, so I suggest checking it on your way out. For now you are dismissed."

With that the meeting was over and the members for the newly formed RFRU Company started to file out of the room. As Ron and Yori stood to leave Ron heard his name being called.

"Stoppable can I see you for a minute?" asked Captain Shultz.

"Yes sir," Ron answered as he walked over.

"Stoppable I want to be both blunt and honest with you," the Company Commander began. "I wanted you dropped from this program weeks ago. In fact if it were not for your Ninja girlfriend-"

"She's not my-" Ron interrupted.

"Stoppable Shut-Up!" barked Shultz. "Now as I was saying if it were not for Yori, LT Daniels, and a couple of her other friends you would not be standing here. Now you have shown improvement over the last week, and I believe that if it continues you might have the potential to be one of the best in this group, however for the time being consider yourself on probation. Understand?"

"Yes sir," Ron muttered.

"What was that Stoppable?" growled Shultz.

"Yes sir!" Ron shouted, snapping to attention.

"Now get out of here," Shultz said, glaring at the blonde. "You're in Daniels' Platoon and as I said earlier they're meeting in the hanger."

* * *

Daniels informed the members of Third Platoon that they had been requested to provide the escort to a dozen members of GJ including Dr. Director herself. Since it was a small number of personnel to escort only four members of the platoon would be going.

Yori was assigned to command the mission, and she chose Ron to be with her for the assignment, along with two others named Jackson and Feldman. After choosing the team she informed them that for the mission the team members were being issued armored vests, and personal sidearms which were already loaded in the jet they were taking. With that the group climbed into the aircraft and left.

After take-off Ron busied himself with getting his vest on, then he noticed someone familiar seated towards the front of the passenger compartment.

"Ron-san who are you looking at?" asked Yori, who was seated next to him.

"Huh," Ron asked distractedly, "Oh nothing, I mean no one."

Yori looked from Ron to the front of the compartment and then back at Ron. "Do you know Doctor Director?" she asked as she realized who he was looking at.

"Yeah I do," he answered, with an embarrassed grin.

"For now I think it is better if you do not distract her," Yori told him. "After the mission you may catch up on, how do you say it? 'Old Times?'"

"Yeah that's how you say it," Ron answered. _Yeah after the mission, wherever that is_.

* * *

Kim was intercepted outside of the courthouse by four sheriff deputies that informed her that she would be allowed into the trial only if she agreed to not interfere with the proceedings in any way. If she attempted to interrupt the trial, abduct the defendants, or create any kind of ruckus, then she would be immediately arrested.

Kim informed the deputies that she would abide by the law as she had always done, and would respect the rules and laws to the letter. Though suspicious of her, the deputies allowed her to enter the packed court room where Kim took the only available seat, right behind the defendants.

For the next four hours Kim heard the prosecutor lay out a case against the agents, saying that they were undoubtedly members of the organization called Global Justice which he claimed was 'now known to be both a terrorist group, and wanted for by many nations for violations of their respective national sovereignties.' He also pointed out the 'numerous kidnappings of suspected 'mad scientists' without consultation of the nations from which the suspects were taken.' Throughout the course of the prosecutor's speech he barely mentioned the charges that the agents and specialists were charged with, choosing instead to tear down the organization, and imply that the defendants were guilty by association.

After the fourth hour of the District Attorney's speech a noise outside the main doors to the courtroom caused the Prosecutor to pause. As the people in the room turned to look at the back of the room the doors flew open and a deputy sheriff flew through them. Kim's eyes widened in surprise when she noticed a very familiar one eyed woman retracting her standard issue Global Justice 'Stop Watch' stunner.

Doctor Elizabeth 'Betty' Director quietly walked into the room and stood against a wall as a dozen of her people filed into the room and lined the walls on either side of the room. All the GJ personnel were armed with not only the stop watches but also submachine guns that were slung under their arms. Kim also thought she saw other figures in black taking up positions outside the doors before they closed so she assumed that Doctor Director must have come with some extra back-up.

"What's the meaning of this intrusion!" bellowed the judge as he rose to his feet.

"The meaning is quite clear," Betty replied calmly. "My associates and I have come to observe this fair and impartial proceeding. Please do not let us interrupt you. Do continue."

Kim was astonished at how quickly the trial proceeded after Betty's dramatic entrance. The DA was sweating as he continued his far more polite, almost apologetic case against the agents, and the defense attorney was practically glowing as he presented his statements. When the Defense attorney put the defendants on the witness stand the District Attorney refused to even consider a cross-examination after seeing Betty glare at the judge for asking.

The young hero could have sworn that the Jury was not even in deliberation for more than a minute before they hastily returned and announced that the agents were clear of all charges. Immediately after the announcement Betty ushered all of her people from the room and by the time that Kim made her way through the crowd and outside the last of the newly cleared agents were climbing into an unmarked van that took off in the direction of the airport.

As Kim turned toward the black sedan that the two Smiths had brought for her she froze as a thought crept into her mind. She remembered seeing the back of a young blonde man in black combat fatigues climbing into the front seat of the van that just left, and he looked very familiar. Then she thought back to when Doctor Director entered the courtroom and she had seen a glimpse of several people in black and she recalled seeing the same blonde man, along with a familiar young Asian woman who seemed to be dressed in a stereotypical black Ninja outfit.

"Nah, couldn't be," Kim said to herself as she walked over to the sedan. _But then again, what if it is true and those two are together now,_ she wondered as she sat in the car.

"How did it go Miss Possible," the bald Agent Smith asked as they drove towards the airport.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Kim answered as she watched a Military passenger jet take off from the municipal airport.

"You don't know that till you try," The second Smith replied.

"You can tell us on the trip back," continued the first Smith.

* * *

Later that evening Kim was back in her room trying to get to sleep but finding that she just couldn't relax. Thoughts of Ron with Yori continued to flood her mind, and nothing seemed to help alleviate that problem. The worst part of the ever growing problem was that she was still uncertain if it was actually Ron and Yori that she saw.

She was fairly certain that it was Yori, after all how many modern Japanese Ninja women were running around with a bright hair band. However the jury was still out on whether or not that was Ron.

Finally a little after midnight Kim knew that she needed an answer. She was just a little ashamed that she was about to violate her friends trust. Slowly she sat up in bed and picked up her Kimmunicator from the nightstand and hit the speed dial.

"Kim do you know what time it is?" Wade muttered, still half asleep.

"Sorry Wade," Kim apologized. "But I do need a favor from you."

"So what else is new," Wade mumbled.

"Wade I need you to find someone for me," Kim explained. "Well actually two people."

* * *

"This might be a problem," grumbled Jack Hench. Over the last three days there had been over two dozen rescues of cornered, trapped, or captured GJ agents. Initially the rescues had been conducted by small teams of commando-like people dressed in black. The raids had been quick and deadly, and the teams left very few survivors, and lost none of the agents they were rescuing.

Things seemed to have changed two days ago however. It seemed that one of the commando teams rescued Doctor Director, and since then she had been on the offensive. Along with a second group of commandos Dr. Director had led multiple rescue operations to get back her people. That morning she had waltzed into a courthouse surrounded by police with a dozen agents and walked out with every one of the captured personnel without even firing a shot. From the news reports the only person injured was a deputy that was hit with a customized stunner that the good Doctor used on him.

The most disturbing piece of news to date seemed to be that Kim Possible was in on the rescues now. The news reports from the hick courthouse indicated that the young hero had entered the courthouse shortly before Doctor Director's grand entrance, and left at the same time she did. It stood to reason that Kim Possible must be working for the GJ remnant and that she was present at the trial to aid the agents if things went bad.

_First mysterious Commandos, then Doctor Director on the loose, and now an angry Kim Possible?_ Jack thought to himself. He sighed heavily as he sat back in his chair. It seemed that all the players were coming together for a classic showdown, and Jack couldn't help but think that perhaps he was on the losing side. With a combination like Kim Possible and Doctor Director against them few people would be willing to risk trying to claim bounties any more, and the survivors of the purge would be looking for blood. Jack groaned to himself and found himself asking a question that had been plaguing his mind for the past two days, _What has Bás gotten me into?_


	7. Chapter 7

For disclaimer refer to chapter one.

Oh and this will be a slower chapter, however things will start to pick up in the next one.

* * *

WHAM!

Samantha woke up and shot out of bed as her bedroom door slammed against the wall of her room. She stood clumsily on her feet and was trying to shield her eyes from the seemingly innocent light of her room. It took her all of five seconds to find out what was going on when she heard the voice of the intruder in her room.

"Get up!" Roared Shego as she stood in the doorway, with one hand on a hip and the other catching the door on its rebound. "It's the first day of classes and I will NOT have you making us late. Now you have fifteen minutes to get your shower and fix your hair and make-up. I'll have your breakfast waiting when you're ready."

Samantha glanced over at her clock to see what time it was.

"Six in the morning!" she screamed. "You woke me up at six!"

"That's right," Shego answered. "Now if you want any breakfast you had better get in the shower, because," she paused as she checked her watch, "You now have fourteen and a half minutes to get ready." The green skinned woman smiled as Samantha started to scream again.

Kim didn't even need a wake up call. She and Shego had both been up for over an hour already making plans for the next day and getting ready for their first day of classes. By the time that Shego was done saying her good morning to Samantha Kim was finishing up her time in the shower. Though all three women had their own bathroom, complete with a shower/tub, they tried to shower at different times to conserve the hot water.

By the time that Kim was dressed and ready for breakfast the first wisps of aroma were making their way to her room. As Kim opened the door to her room and stepped out into the hallway she found herself being body-slammed by a fast moving blur.

"SAM!" Kim screamed as the two women found themselves tangled together on the floor.

"Sorry," Samantha apologized as she scrambled to her feet and lowered a hand to Kim. "I was afraid that when Shego said I only had fifteen minutes, she actually meant it."

"No big," Kim answered as she regained her balance.

The two ladies made their way to the kitchen to find that Shego had not only made them a large breakfast, but had also set the table and fixed their plates, as was becoming her habit. Since arriving at the house Shego had insisted on no uncertain terms that she alone would be cooking for the trio. She remembered reading the headlines from Middleton about some of the things that had happed when Kim was taking Home Ec. Class, so she refused to even allow Kim near the appliances; and after Samantha started a grease fire while trying to make stir fry Shego declared that she was the only competent one when it came to cooking.

Samantha glanced over at Shego, who was leaning in the walk-in pantry, and then covered her mouth to keep from laughing.

"What's so funny?" Kim asked turning her head to see the joke. As soon as she saw Shego she started to giggle.

"What's the joke?" Shego asked with a scowl as she walked over to the table.

"You are," Samantha laughed, as she lost her last bit of self control.

Due to Shego's cover story of being Samantha's half-sister it became necessary for her to look similar to the young Asian woman, and less like her normally green-skinned self. To help with the problem Wade had provided her with a skin lotion that temporarily dyed her skin to a shade that closely resembled Samantha's. He told the trio that the lotion would last for over a week before starting to wear off, was water proof, and was a great sunscreen.

"It's not funny," mumbled Shego.

"Uh, Yeah it is 'Sharon,'" Kim giggled.

* * *

Exactly fifteen minutes after sitting down to eat breakfast Shego was ushering the others to the car to head for the campus.

"You do know that we still have an hour and a half until classes start right?" Samantha asked as the pulled away from the house.

"Yeah, you know that I have a class to teach, and I want to be ready and early for it," Shego answered distractedly as they headed for the campus. Though she would never mention it out loud she was rather nervous about teaching in a university. It was not that the class was supposed to be hard, or that the subject was difficult, but Shego was a perfectionist at heart, so she was afraid of making mistakes period.

* * *

The class that Shego was teaching was an introduction to health that met twice a week. The first time was in a classroom and consisted of studying basic subjects like nutrition, while the second time that week would be the physical side and doing the activity that the students signed up for (in her case the running portion of the class).

The drive to campus had taken less than twenty minutes during the trips that the ladies had taken earlier in the month, but on this day it turned into a grueling forty-five minutes. The delay was due to the sheer number of students, staff, and faculty trying to make it to campus before the start of the first classes. Kim spent most of the ride chastising Shego for boarder-line road-rage behavior, while Samantha sat in awe at how long Shego could curse without repeating a single word, though she couldn't really follow the rant after their driver started switching languages.

The end of the driving nightmare came when the trio arrived at the central campus garage. The mood of their unofficial chauffer did not improve when the group found that it was already packed. Shego was nearing a meltdown when she found that the only spots left were on the roof; however Kim and Samantha were not in the mood for listening by that point and chose to vacate the scene.

"Whoa where do you think you're going?" Shego asked as Samantha bolted from the car.

"Duh, I'm going to class," Samantha answered in a huff. She had had enough of Shego's attitude on the drive and she just wanted to get to class in the last fifteen minutes that she had.

"When you get done with the class head over to the Student Center," Shego instructed, ignoring Samantha's attitude for the time being. "I'll meet you there."

"I don't need a babysitter all the time," Samantha griped while placing her fists on her hips.

"Yeah well your friend Nick seemed to think you do," Shego retorted. "So I'll see you after your class."

"Whatever," Samantha grumbled as she turned and jogged to the stairs of the garage.

* * *

Ron sighed in contentment as he placed his cup of coffee down on the table in front of him. After coming to Area 52 he had developed a taste for the very strong and tick variant brewed at the facilities cafeterias._ Now if only I had a Naco, Rufus, and Kim here I'd be set_, he thought to himself. His look of utter contentment was shattered as he remembered Kim and Rufus, and was replaced by one of dejection.

Ever since Yori became his team leader Ron had done everything he could to be part of the new team; however no matter how hard he tried to move on with his life the memory of what he lost kept creeping back.

The good part of being on the new team was that it was very easy to get lost in the work. For at least twelve hours per day each team got to experience the most esteemed honor of being flown around the world, and to either; rescue UN representatives, recon terrorist factions, rescue captives that were citizens of UN members (including the remaining unaccounted for GJ members), or any number of other odd jobs that General Simms dreamed up in his demented minds. Ron swore that the man couldn't sleep well unless he made someone's life a living hell during the day.

One of Ron's few remaining pleasures in life was the undoubtedly lethal brew of coffee that he was currently drinking, and in less than half an hour that little indulgent would be over as the new day kicked into full swing.

"How's it going Stoppable?" asked Feldman as he sat down across the table from Ron. Of the four members of the team Feldman was by far the most outgoing, and since Ron fell into his fit of depression he took over the moral aspect of the team.

"Is he down again?" asked Jackson as be came over with his breakfast.

"Yeah the dude is totally out of it, as usual," answered Feldman.

"So what do you think we should do?" Jackson inquired as he sat down.

"Well," Feldman replied thoughtfully, "I _was_ thinking about shooting him just to end his misery, and then tell Yori that he just vanished."

"Works for me," agreed Jackson, then he paused to take a bite of his meal before continuing. "Then again Yori would just kill us for losing him, and how would that be an improvement."

"You've got a point," Feldman considered. "It would be a good plan if it was someone else."

"Whoa, wait a minute," Ron exclaimed.

"Relax," Jackson said.

"Yeah it's not like we have a gun with us or anything."

"No, that's not it," Ron replied. "What do you mean 'if it was someone else'?"

"Dude you're so dense," laughed Jackson.

"Huh?" Ron asked.

"Man Yori is seriously into you," Feldman explained. "Please don't tell me that you haven't noticed."

"But-"

"Is he really this stupid?" Jackson asked Feldman.

"We are talking about the 'Ron Stoppable,'" Feldman replied.

"Point taken," Jackson agreed. He then turned to Ron, took a deep breath, released it, and started to explain, "Ron I think it's time that we explain something to you about the opposite gender."

"Things that your parents should have explained when you were in Junior High," Feldman added.

"You see," Jackson continued, in a superior tone that had Feldman cracking up in amusement. "When a woman likes a man she. . ."

* * *

Yori entered the main cafeteria and paused as she heard laughter coming from a crowd that had gathered in one of the far corners. She considered whether or not to head over there but when the laughter died and she heard the voice of one of the three men she was searching for talking in the group she decided to risk everything and investigate.

As Yori drew closer she heard Feldman as he continued what seemed to be a lecture, and she found herself intrigued when se spotted a very uncomfortable Ron Stoppable sitting in a chair. In front of him were Jackson and Feldman, who were doing a very comical imitation of professors, with the crowd encircling the trio.

"And that, my young student brings us to the first date," Feldman finished his mini speech. As Jackson stepped up to discuss the concept of a first date Yori tapped a member of the crowd on the shoulder and quietly asked. "What is going on?"

"The two guys over there are giving a talk on romance," answered the spectator.

"And what is so interesting about that," Yori inquired.

"Just listen," the young woman answered impatiently, "They're hilarious."

"I am sure that they are," answered Yori. She had always found the antics of her team to be quite entertaining in the past, however they were late for a mission, and no matter how much she enjoyed 'American-Style Humor, and Jokes' she would not have it interrupt the performance of the team.

"Excuse me," Yori called to her two team clowns. Immediately all the eyes of the crowd turned to her and Yori fought the urge to duck. She had never been one to talk in front of a crowd, and much of her training focused on being out of sight, so her people skills were far below par, especially in this case.

"Ma-am!" shouted Feldman and Jackson in unison as they snapped to attention, with Ron following a second later. It made Yori even more uncomfortable to see Ron standing at attention like he was for her, but she understood the need for discipline, and she also knew how important it was that the team understood that she would not be showing favoritism in the field.

When the crowd saw that the show was over they began to leave, some faster than others when they looked at the Ninja's serious expression. As the crowd left Ron and Jackson returned their trays and the team left for the locker rooms near the hanger.

"Ma'am, what's the mission for today?" asked Feldman as he exited the locker room with Ron and Jackson. Both Feldman and Jackson were dressed in plain black fatigues, along with light combat boots and light armored vests. Yori and Ron however were dressed in the stereotypical Ninja outfits along with the same light armored vests as the other two.

Although she was now leading a mixed team that included professional soldiers, Yori believed in using what she was most comfortable with, and since she had been trained since childhood to fight in the traditional, nonrestrictive cloths, she stayed with it. She also refused to allow Ron to wear anything else considering that he was the "Mystical Monkey Master" in addition to his carrying the Lotus Blade with them on missions.

"We will be assisting in the rescue of a Global Justice strike team," replied Yori as the jet taxied outside of the underground hanger. "It seems that this group managed to elude everyone during the Global Justice fall, and has only recently made contact with a local embassy to request sanctuary."

"If they're hiding out at an embassy then why do they need us?" asked Feldman.

"They never made it to the embassy," replied Yori.

"Hopefully we make it before the 'other guys,'" mumbled Jackson. The 'Other Guys' were a mysterious group that had been performing rescue operations along with them. No one seemed to know who the 'Other Guys' were. They simply appeared, used both stealth and an impressive array of lethal weapons, rescued the personnel, and then vanished.

On more than one occasion teams like Yori's would arrive right after such a rescue and it was never a pretty sight. It seemed that the only pattern to these other peoples' movements was that the enemy in the targeted raids used some form of advanced weaponry, and that after the raids the weapons were missing.

"I do not think that we will be dealing with them this time," Yori answered.

"Actually getting a glimpse of them would be an improvement," Feldman added.

"Ya don't think that they're one of the other teams, do you," Ron asked. "After all they do dress like us."

"They wear black Stoppable-san, that is all," corrected Yori. To be honest Yori did not know how to feel about the other group. None of the GJ personnel that had been rescued by them ever discussed how they were, or acted, or anything else except that they wore all black, and had some kind of body armor.

The only thing she did know for certain was that that they fought hard and fast, like professional soldiers, and were masters of stealth like Special Operations teams, or Ninjas.

* * *

Kim was walking across the campus from her class when she heard her Kimmunicator ringing.

"What's the Sitch Wade?"

"You've got a hit on your site from someone named Hirotaka," Wade informed her.

"Hirotaka," Kim thought out loud. "Did he say what he wanted?"

"He just said that he hadn't heard from you since High school and he wanted to touch base since you're both in the same town."

"Oh now I remember!" Kim exclaimed. "He was the boy that came to Middleton with the exchange program!"

"The guy from Yamanouchi?"

"That's the one!" she confirmed. "And he's going here?"

"Apparently so," Wade answered. "So what should I tell him?"

"Tell him it's cool, we can meet whenever."

"Ok Kim, Bye."

"Bye Wade."

* * *

Samantha picked up her coffee and then chose a table in the Student's Center Coffee shop, and then waited for Shego to show up. So far she was enjoying her first day of classes, though she was wondering about her first professor.

The man had started his lecture by informing all of the students that his class 'was for Biology majors only, and that it was a fail-out course, so if anyone wants to change classes they need to do it now.' Almost immediately six out of the hundred and fifty students walked out. By the time the professor finished explaining the Bell-Curve grading concept used in the class ten more students left. Then when the initial lecture was over Samantha considered dropping the class.

Now, however she was just sitting alone waiting for her 'sister' Shego to show up.

"So how was your first class?" asked Shego as she sat down at the table.

Samantha smiled as she sat down her cup to answer. "It was just fine 'Sharon.'"

Shego barely managed to keep from showing her disgust at the sound of her cover identity. "So, no problems?"

"Well not anything I can't handle," Samantha explained. "It'll be a challenge though. How about you? How was your first class?"  
"Oh, it was a blast!" Shego remarked in total sarcasm. "I just loved spending fifty minutes going over absolutely nothing."

"What do you mean?"

"The university told the book company to order the wrong books," Shego elaborated. "So I got to hand out the Syllabus, explain the mistake, then try to cover the first chapter that no one had read yet. Though I don't think it needed much study anyways."

"Isn't the first chapter just an overview?"

"Like I said, a complete waste of time," Shego took a drink and then glanced around the room. "Where's Princess?"

* * *

"Nancy, will you come in please?" Jack Hench asked his secretary over the intercom.

The door to the office opened and a young woman entered. Jack took a minute to admire the beauty of the secretary before he pushed such thoughts to the back of his mind. He knew that if he was going to survive the next few weeks he wound need to stay focused and what he needed now was someone trustworthy. Nancy was one of only three people that Jack trusted completely in the company, and at the moment he knew that that trust would be put to the test.

"Nancy, what would you say if I told you that I plan to end my association with Mr. Bás?"

Nancy smirked, and she crossed her arms as she answered. "I would say that it is about time. What do you want me to do?"

* * *

Ron's head felt like it had exploded as he hit the back of the seat in front of him. He had been fighting to get his seatbelt fastened when an explosion rocked the plane. He glanced outside of the window and saw that the plane's wing engine on that side was now engulfed in flames, or what was left of it. They were only about a hundred feet from the ground, but now he wasn't very sure that they would make it down in one piece.

"EVERYONE HOLD ON!" shouted the pilot over the intercom, as the plane accelerated towards the ground. "THIS IS GOING TO BE-"


	8. Chapter 8

For disclaimer please refer to Chapter 1.

This chapter is actually split between this one and the next due to it's length, hopefully the next one will be out in a few days.

* * *

Bás smiled to himself as he watched the jet slide across the runway of the airfield.

"Impressive shot," admired Gemini.

"Indeed," agreed Bás, "and that was your man's first attempt at firing the plasma weapon. As you can see there is nothing wrong with the performance of the weapons."

"Then might you explain why none of my people have returned from missions while using them?" Gemini growled. Of the seven missions that WEE had launched utilizing the new weapons, all had ended in failure. In fact none of the agents who went on the missions had returned alive. Their bodies had been found at the sites later, and in every case the dead agents had been stripped of their new weapons and body armor. "It still seems to me that in most cases the weapons and armor is lacking."

"Which is why I insisted on us attending this mission personally," Bás replied coolly. "I believe that the problem is simply that your people are unfamiliar with the new equipment, and that with time, and training, the success rate will improve."

* * *

"UP!" screamed Yori as she jumped to her feet. "Everyone up NOW!"

Ron tried to stand up and found that something was holding him down. As he tried to squirm out of his predicament he heard the weight on him moan.

"Wha happened," Jackson asked in a daze.

"Dunno," Ron answered. "But if you get off maybe we can find out.

"Huh," asked Jackson.

"Dude, just move," snapped Ron.

"Huh," Jackson finally opened his eyes and noticed that he was laying on an upturned seat that was pinning Ron to the floor of the planes passenger cabin. He crawled to his feet and quickly pulled the seat off of Ron. "Man are you ok?"

"I think so," Ron answered as Jackson pulled him up. He checked himself and was astonished to see that aside from some small cuts, and a lot of bruises, he was alright. "Yori's going to kill me for ruining the suit though."

"Maybe later," Yori said from down the cabin as she helped Feldman to his feet. "For now check on the pilots."

"Yes Ma'am," Jackson answered saluting. Then he and Ron started to make their way to the cockpit. They were almost to the pilots when they were blinded by an energy blast that seemed to vaporize the whole front of the cabin.

"What the h-" Jackson was cut off as a second blast incenerated a piece of the ceiling right behind him and Ron.

"Get out of the plane!" shouted Yori, as she and Feldman fought to open the rear door.

"Let's go Ron!" shouted Jackson as he leaped out of the new hole in the front of the plane and into the night.

Ron quickly followed and together with Jackson they made a mad dash towards the closest hanger. He chanced a look back at the jet and thought that it looked like a chewed pencil with the holes that were being dilled into it by the plasma fire.

"Ron hurry up!" yelled Jackson as he pulled Ron toward an open door. "It won't take them long to start looking for us." The two ran into the open door and crashed against the walls on either side once they were in.

"What took you so long," Feldman whispered to Ron..

Ron nearly jumped from surprise at the other man's presence, but just barely manages to restrain himself.

"Dude, don't do that," he hissed while looking for Yori.

"She's watching the other door," Feldman informed Ron.

"Thanks," Ron answered.

"Come on," Yori whispered as she approached the group in the dark. "It looks like they're finishing up what's left of the plane." She paused a minute then continued. "Did any of you see another plane like ours when you were coming over?"

"No Ma'am," Jackson replied.

"Then maybe the other team has not arrived yet," Yori said to herself.

"Other team?" Ron echoed.

"Come on," Yori commanded, and led the way through the hanger to the far side, and hopefully safety.

* * *

"Impressive," Gemini commented with a smile.

"And now we will see the effectiveness of the smaller weapons, along with the armor, as your people dispatch the survivors."

"Tell me," Gemini asked turning to Bás. Why did you want to wait until this final group arrived before eliminating the Global Justice rabble?"

Bás arched a surprised eyebrow at the question, "Why? I thought that after expressing such disappointment with my products that you would want the most elaborate demonstration possible to prove the effectiveness of the merchandise. I would think that hunting a half-dozen GJ agents along with eight Special Forces soldiers would be a much better demonstration than if your people hunted each group individually."

Gemini crossed his arms and glared out of the control tower's window. "This had better work, for your sake."

* * *

Yori and her team quickly made their way to the airport terminal to get their bearings and decide their next move. Once inside the team went directly to the security office where Yori accessed the main security system terminal.

"So is it good news or bad news?" asked Ron when Yori's look of concentration started to morph into a scowl.

"Let her work Stoppable," snapped Jackson from his post by the room's only door.

"Seriously," agreed Feldman.

"He is not bothering me," Yori quietly corrected the team members from her seat. "There," she announced after a brief pause.

"Good news?" Ron asked hopefully, as he glanced at the wall of screens above Yori's station.

"I have accessed the security systems, including all of the surveillance cameras, if that is what you mean."

"Yeah, that is good," Ron replied.

"Can you see what shot down the plane?" asked Feldman.

"I am cycling through the cameras now, but it will take a few minutes," Yori answered. "Ron, could you and Feldman check the surveillance videos while I am doing this?"

"Do you want all of them for the last hour, or just the ones covering the runways," asked Feldman.

"Did you see where the shots came from," Yori asked curiously arching an eyebrow.

"Well, no," he admitted.

"Then all of them will do," she replied while returning her attention to the screens in front of her.

"Yes Ma'am," grumbled Feldman as he sat down and got to work.

* * *

Kim Possible entered the campus's student center's café and went over to where Samantha was already eating lunch. As she sat down Sam looked up from where she was devouring a hamburger.

"Wha's up?" she asked through a mouth full of food.

Kim cringed as she saw bits of half chewed food fall dangerously close to her plate. "Swallow, then ask."

Samantha swallowed the food in one massive gulp then smiled innocently at Kim. "Alright; What-Is-Up?" she asked again, very clearly, and emphasizing every word.

"You know you've been getting very sarcastic lately," Kim accused her while pretending to be serious.

"What can I say, I learned from the best?"

"Me?"

"No," Sam laughed, and pointed to where Shego was entering the café. "Her."

Shego picked up a light salad and walked over to the other ladies. As she sat her food down on the table Samantha stood up and hugged Shego around the waist.

"Whoa," Shego angrily exclaimed, while trying to disconnect the younger woman. "What're you doing?"

"Just showing how much I missed my favorite sister." Sam smirked as she released the older woman and returned to her seat.

Shego looked suspiciously at Samantha, and then she carefully took her seat. Kim arched an eyebrow as she considered how easily the older woman took the whole exchange. She knew that had it been her in Shego's position it would not have bothered her too much to have Sam hug her, but this should have been a different matter entirely. The only time that Shego had ever shown any indication of enjoying peaceful physical contact was when her brain had latterly been rewired to be Miss Go.

As for Shego, she couldn't understand her reaction either. She had never really liked or appreciated close contact with anyone, and in more than one case she had made that well known with plasma, like with Motor Ed. Despite how she loathed the contact she just couldn't bring herself to touch the younger woman. When they had first met she had been hesitant about raising her voice to Sam since she was so timid, and rigid around the older women. Now that she was getting over the nervousness Shego was finding that she was unwilling to do anything that would cause the young woman to fall back into her old habits.

The trio managed to get through their lunch in peace, chatting about their respective classes, before being interrupted by a cell phone.

"It's mine," Samantha announced as she pulled her phone from its pouch in her bag.

The other two ladies relaxed while Samantha answered her cell phone. Shego had almost forgotten that the younger woman even had a phone considering how seldom she used the thing. Kim was of a like mind on the issue so the fact that someone was calling her now peaked both of their interests.

"You need me to come now?" Samantha asked the caller. "Yes I have time but. . . Are you sure?" She frowned as the caller spoke to her, and her look only grew grimmer as the call continued. "Yes I can meet him there. . . I understand, five minutes, bye."

"Sounds serious," observed Shego as Samantha hung up.

"Yeah, look I need to go."

"Go?" asked Shego.

Samantha's expression shifted as it occurred to her that she was trying to brush off both her bodyguards. Since meeting the two older females they had become so accustomed to being around one another that Samantha was starting to forget that they were there for her protection, and even Kim was beginning to forget that as well.

"Uh, yeah," Sam started as her mind raced to come up with an excuse to run out on the other two. "Well you see a group for one of my classes is trying to get a head start on a semester project, and one of the members is trying to call everyone over to the main library for a brainstorm, and research session."

"Cool," Kim commented smiling.

"Cool?" Shego echoed in surprise. She couldn't believe that anyone claiming to be a blood relative of hers would dare to invent such a lame excuse and here was Miss I-Can-Do- Anything daring to be impressed by the idiot.

"Yeah," Kim continued. "I need to go to the library myself to start on my research."

"You do?" Sam asked as her face fell.

Shego grinned at the teen's newfound dilemma. "Have fun Sam."

Samantha silently thanked the good luck that came her way as Kim's Kimmunicator began ringing on the way to the main campus's library.

"What's the sitch Wade?" Kim asked in her usual upbeat tone.

"Kim one of the US's ambassadors in Europe need's you to locate a GJ team that went missing a few hours ago."

"Could you be more specific about where in Europe?" Kim asked.

"Sorry Kim," Wade apologized. "The governments of both countries want this kept low key. The GJ team was supposed to meet with a couple of the Embassy's staff and never showed, and now the rescue team they sent for is missing."  
"So now I'm the last option?" Kim asked rather irritated.

"Kim we don't have much time," Wade pressed.

"Right so where do I meet the ride?"

"Just wait by the Football Field's parking lot gate in five minutes."

"Thanks Wade," Kim answered, "bye."

"Later Kim," her friend signed off.

Kim looked over at Samantha and gave her a hard glare. "If I leave you right now, can I trust you to go back and let She-"

"Sharon."

"Sharon, know what's going on?"

"Yes Ma'am!" Samantha answered smiling, and topped it off with a mock salute.

Kim softened her glare, but arched an eyebrow at the response. "I'll trust you this time." With that Kim jogged of to meet her ride.

Samantha waited until Kim was out of sight and then ran off to meet her people, just not in the direction of the library, or Shego.

* * *

Yori leaned back in her chair, rubbed her eyes and sighed. It had not taken long to check all of the current surveillance footage; however it did take a while to get a semi-accurate count of the people around the airport. She had finally come to the conclusion that all civilians had abandoned the area, though she still did not know how or why, nor did she care.

She also managed to narrow the people around the area into several distinct groups. The first was the group from WEE, or the Worldwide Evil Empire who numbered at least in the high twenties. They were heavily armed with what Ron called plasma weapons, and were wearing armored vests over their usual jumpsuits. The second group was made up of men in dark armored outfits, complete with sealed helmets, who were also armed with the new weapons. This group numbered in the teens and moved in well organized groups of four. The third group consisted of only four members who were attempting to covertly access the terminal building, though their obvious fatigue was making that difficult. This group she identified as the other team from Area 52. The GJ team was hiding within the terminal already, and holding up in a food court.

The main headache that she was experiencing at the moment came down to a couple of points that she did not want to consider. The first was that the enemy, whoever they really were, had not used the surveillance equipment. To Yori that obviously screamed 'Trap.' The second was this new unidentified group. Yori had never heard of them before, and she suspected that they were tied to more than this raid by WEE. The man that she suspected to be their leader was a well dressed man in a black business suit, and long hair who had been staying with Gemini, and two other WEE operatives in the control tower. This meant that Gemini knew him fairly well, for him to have that kind of access.

These points added to the new weapons, the ease with which the hunt for survivors was being conducted, and the ease with which the enemy could shoot down United Nations military craft, was giving Yori the migraine of her life.

Yori finally turned her chair to look at her team and began to issue orders. "Feldman, take Jackson and secure a sniper position in the control tower," Feldman and Jackson snapped to attention out of respect, and then hastily exited. Once they left she stood up and pulled on her hood. Ron donned his own hood and then pulled out the Lotus Blade in readiness. Yori smiled behind the mask at the young blonde. Though she would never say anything personal to him in the field, she wished to tell him how proud she was of him personally, and of his progress.

"Now it is our turn to play hero," she told him, and with that the duo slipped out into the shadows of the airport.

* * *

"Thanks for the lift Captain," Kim called to the pilot of the fighter jet as they began their approach to the airport that the GJ team disappeared in.

"No problem Miss Possible," the pilot called back. "Just don't mention it to anyone."

"You got it," Kim answered, while getting her first view of the place.

Even though it was night and the airport's lights were nearly all out, it was still easy to spot it. The main runway was ablaze with wreckage of what might have been a small passenger jet. The debris went from the field in front of the approach, all the way past the end where the remains of the fuselage burned brightly.

"Looks like a vacationer's paradise," the pilot remarked sarcastically. "Are you sure about this Miss Poss-"

Whatever the pilot was going to say was lost as a bright blob of light streaked by the nose of the jet mere feet from the tip.

"What was that!" the Captain exclaimed.

"Plasma," Kim commented nervously.

"_Plasma_?" The pilot asked.

Before Kim could answer the pilot's inquiry the jet took a hit to the fuselage behind the cockpit. The next few seconds were a blur for the young woman, as the aircraft began to tumble, the pilot ordering her to eject, the sensation of being blown out by the seat, and watching the plane fall far below her as the parachute opened.

* * *

"Nice shot," Gemini commented to himself while holstering his new pistol, "Even if I do say so myself." He had merely glanced through the small scope on the new plasma weapon and within two shots had brought down a military fighter. _If this is typical of all of Bás's products then I may actually develop a real appreciation for them._

"Magnificent shot," breathed Agent Zeta from one of the tower's windows.

"Adequate," corrected Gemini. "Not as enjoyable as the glove's mini-rockets, though an acceptable substitute for ranged attacks." The leader of WEE looked around the control room for Bás to congratulate him on the weapon, when he noticed something was wrong. "Where is Bás?"

* * *

Kim hit the ground hard and quickly cut away her parachute. Without knowing the terrain well she had chosen to land near the only visible target, which happened to be the burning aircraft. However there was a real problem with that choice which happened to be that the people shooting at her also could see her in the light of the fire.

Once free of the harness Kim dashed for the nearest building. Once there she pulled out her new night-vision sunglasses, provided by Wade, and scanned the crash area for movement of the Captain. It didn't take her long to spot the pilot since he had landed seconds after she did. At the moment he was running very fat towards her hiding place.

Seconds before he made it however a plasma blast hit the ground a yard to his right so the man dived to his left to avoid the blast. Kim was about to run to the rescue when a second shot impacted the ground right where the officer had landed, and the man vanished in the explosion.

Kim froze in horror at what she was watching. Though she had been going on missions since middle school she had never actually seen someone die before. Even when Warmonga and Warhok had died in their attack on Earth she had been unconscious so she had merely heard about it later. To actually see someone that she knew die in front of her was something that she had never bothered to prepare herself for. The worst part to her was that his only reason for being there was that he was helping _her_. Someone had been risking his life for _her,_ and she failed to help _him_. Kim stumbled back into the building and collapsed against the wall. She closed her eyes and then quickly reopened them as she relived what just happened.

She was so lost in her own mind that she didn't even see the quartet of figures enter the open door and train their weapons on her. The men quietly moved into the room and formed a semicircle around the shell-shocked hero.

"On your feet!" barked one of the men.

When Kim didn't respond the man brought the butt of his weapon down across her face smashing the back of her head against the wall. Kim didn't even whimper, but she finally raised her empty gaze to the man.

"Didn't you hear me?" the man growled, "ON-YOUR-FEET, _NOW_!"

"No," Kim whispered, lowering her gaze back to the floor.

The men looked at each other as if to ask what to do.

"Gemini said he only wanted the GJ scum dead," one remarked.

"Yeah he did say if anyone survived the crash to bring them to him," another added.

"Should have thought about that before you roasted the other guy," the forth accused.

"Alright, you want her to live?" the first answered, "Then she'll live." And without a second's pause he grabbed Kim and roughly yanked her to her feet. "Just remember this Possible," he warned as his friends searched Kim and took her backpack, "You make any trouble for us and you will wish that _you _were the one killed."

_But I already do_, Kim mentally commented as she was led away.

* * *

Feldman and Jackson stormed the Control Tower quickly and were more than a little surprised to find that it was completely deserted.

_This is wrong, this is wrong, this is_ so _wrong_, Feldman found himself chanting in his mind as Jackson took up a sniper position. He had never seen an operation run as amateurishly as this group they were after. The only room that had access to the entire security system had been deserted, as had the only room with a complete view of the complex. Right now his team of four knew the patrol routes for the entire enemy force, knew their numbers, and had a sniper position that could decimate the other side. _There is no way they could be this dumb_.

* * *

Gemini watched the screens that lined two of the walls of the small observation room in the abandoned nuclear shelter in the lowest level of the airport terminal. It was little more than a holdover from the early days of the Cold War, when nuclear superpowers thought that Europe would be the staging ground for a third world war. Now few even knew that the complex even had subterranean rooms, much less how extensive they were.

Under his guidance WEE agents were closing in on the two rescue teams. The two fools who had 'seized' the Control Tower did not even realize that the whole tower was rigged to blow on his command, and as for the other two who had just linked up with the other rescue team; they would soon find that they were outgunned, and outmatched by the two dozen WEE agents moving in on their position.

The Global Justice team was a different story however. They had somehow found one of the access points for the basement complex, and were now starting to explore it. Gemini had already dispatched another dozen of his henchmen to find and alleviate the annoyance, but he would have preferred that the situation not have arisen in the first place.

The greatest news to date was the report of the capture of one, Kimberly Ann Possible. The leader of WEE was very anxious to interrogate her in person to discover just how much the woman knew of Global Justice's survivors including Elizabeth Director. The fact that the former teen hero had been present at the rescue of several agents from their own trial, and then coincidentally at this rescue, showed that she had some information of the organization's member's locations.

Gemini raised his one good hand to pet his Pepe, and then remembered with regret how he had to leave the poor dog at his home. Though the little animal had lost none of his spirit, age was starting to catch up to him. So that left a very agitated leader of the criminal organization without his stress relief, and the henchmen were beginning to feel the effects of this firsthand.

Gemini strolled up to the screens once more, turned his head back and forth to take in all that they showed, and then turned to face the agent at the main computer console. "Give the order," he commanded. "Wipe them all out."

* * *

Feldman saw a small red light blink underneath a desk near Jackson and then out of the corner of his eyes he noticed two other blink. Quickly he dropped to the floor and glance under the desk and his jaw dropped.

"The place is rigged!" he shouted.

Jackson snapped around and looked at Feldman for a split second and then leaped to his feet. The two men dashed out of the nearest glass door and leaped over the railing as the entire upper half of the tower blew apart.


	9. Chapter 9

For Disclaimer refer to Chapter 1

* * *

Ron lost his balance and fell to his knees as the shockwave of an explosion reached him Yori, and the other Area 52 team. Yori managed to hold her balance while the members of the other team fell to a kneeling position and raised their weapons to cover all angles.

The group was making their way to the terminal's food court that Yori believed the Global Justice people were hiding in. As they stood up the sound of the explosion died only to be replaced by the sound of heavy boots running towards the group. Yori and Ron pulled out their weapons, and the other team regained their firing positions as Gemini's Henchmen came into view.

The two sides stood facing each other for a second before Yori did something that neither side expected.

"Charge!" she screamed and sprinted to the henchmen, followed a fraction of a second by Ron and the other team. Ron transformed his Lotus Blade into a bat, while the other team opened up with volley after volley on the stunned henchmen.

The henchmen clearly had the numerical advantage, but they were unprepared to face the highly disciplined and well armed troops from Area 52. The fighting was fast and brutal. The second team quickly attached their bayonets to their rifles and charged the henchmen along with Yori and Ron. Ron was astonished at the speed at which Yori was fighting, and the variety of her assault. She was alternating between her full assortment of weapons, and Ninjitsu, and tore her way through the henchmen.

Within seconds the WEE agents were running full speed away from the attack, most of them having never even firing their weapons. The Area 52 personnel paused for a respite instead of pursuing, and began checking for wounds.

"Corporal, how are your people?" Yori asked after she and Ron check themselves for possible injuries.

"One dead, no injured," the Corporal answered from where he was crouching.

Ron turned to face the man and nearly vomited from what he saw. The fight had been so fast and intense that he had subconsciously distanced himself from what was happening, and only focused on hitting the man in front of him. Now that it was over he began to see the grim reality.

The Corporal was crouching over a body that was several yards away from where they had hit the Henchman. The body was that of one of their own men, lying where he fell as the group had charged the WEE agents. The thing that made Ron queasy was the condition of the man's body. There was a circular hole carved out of the man starting at the base of his neck on the left side, and which continued down and around the torso and ending above his left hip. The injury had been caused by one of the henchmen's plasma weapons, and had burned through the man's new body armor, both the outer hard layer, and the inner lining, then through his body, and back out through his back armor.

"It cut through him like butter," the Corporal commented while standing up.

"And the shot was still able to take out the wall," Ron added as he noticed a round hole at the end of the hallway that their group had come from.

Yori glanced around at the carnage of the unconscious henchmen, their own dead man, and the surviving men and then back at the Corporal. "Take your people and secure a ride for us," she instructed. "Stoppable and I will find the survivors and bring them to you."

"Where do you want to meet," the Corporal asked.

"We'll meet at the main doors on the East side, and then we will all go to the embassy together."

"You know where the people are?" the man asked.

"Yes in the basement," Yori replied.

"Where," Ron asked.

The Corporal's expression changed as realization sank in. "Of course," he said then turned to Ron to explain. "The henchmen came from in front of us so the GJ couldn't have been there, and we didn't pass them on the way here, so where do you think they are?"

"Oh," Ron muttered. "But we still don't know where the stairs are for the basement."

"Yeah good luck with that," one of the other team members remarked as he helped lift the body of his teammate.

"Thanks," Ron mumbled from behind his hand, as he turned away to keep from vomiting.

* * *

Kim groaned as she began to regain consciousness. The first thing she realized was that her head felt like it was going to explode and she couldn't figure out why. She tried to remember what happened before she was knocked out and then she groaned again as the memories flooded back. She saw herself cutting away the parachute, she recalled seeking shelter inside the abandoned hanger, and then she remembered the pilot as his body was utterly destroyed in an explosion caused by a WEE henchman's plasma weapon.

Kim's eyes shot opened in horror as she relived the man's death and she took in her surroundings. She was secured, spread eagle, to a wall in a small concrete room that had one door, and no windows. That in and of itself did not faze her considering that she had been tied up many times in the past; however another detail did bother her. She was no longer wearing the cloths that she had been captured in. Instead she noticed that she was only wearing a paper hospital gown, and from the draft that she was feeling she realized that the backless gown was _all_ that she had on.

She decided, after coming to that disturbing conclusion about her wardrobe, to focus on the big picture, and she studied her surroundings. The only furniture in the room was one folding table in a far corner, and the only light was an old hanging light fixture in the center of the ceiling. From the condition of the unpainted concrete, and the rusty table and door, she guessed that the room was old, but even that did not help her out. The only substantial guess that she could make was that she was being held underground, and that Gemini was planning on keeping her there for some time.

"Wow seven years of saving the world only to end up as a Wall Flower in an evil maniac's basement," Kim said to herself, "I mean who would have guessed."

* * *

Gemini sat in his chair behind a rather elaborate solid wood desk. He then scanned the hidden control room until his gaze settled on one of the men typing feverishly at a computer station.

"Agent Sigma," he called to the man. "Please, report on the progress of the teams."

The young man silently cursed whatever fate that had led him to this job, and stood up to give the report. "Sir, the control tower was destroyed as planned, however the two enemy agents did manage to escape, by jumping out of the tower, shortly before the detonation." Gemini glared at the man as he talked, but somehow the young agent found the resolve to continue. "Also over half of Team Beta was slaughtered by the six agents in the main terminal building."

Gemini leaned back in his seat and closed his one good eye. After a few seconds of silence he calmly asked, "And what of our men in the underground passages?"

"They are still waiting at the ambush point for the Global Justice team to arrive."

Gemini nodded his head as he listened, and then reached over to a button hidden on the arm of his chair. "Very well," he answered Sigma as he pressed the button.

A hole immediately opened beneath the young agent and in less than a second the man was gone and the hole had closed again.

"Agent Gamma, contact Agent Omega and inform him it is time to bring in the second wave," he informed another one of the men in the room. "Oh and please inform him that I want NO survivors on the other side, nor will I allow any on our side if he fails."

* * *

"Yori, do you know where you're going?" Ron asked nervously as they passed silently through the underground maze of passages beneath the airport.

Yori did not respond verbally, however she did turn to face him, and then held a finger over her lips to signal him to be quiet. As she turned back around she froze, and Ron nearly ran into her. She quietly held one arm behind her back to brace him and pointed down the dark corridor with her other hand.

Ron looked at what she was watching and saw a henchman entering a room four doors down. As the door closed both of them silently ran to the door and flanked it on both sides. Ron morphed his blade into a small ram he had seen police use on TV, and Yori could barely keep from giggling at the sight. She decided to humor him, so she held up her fingers and did a countdown for him. On Zero Ron smashed through the door and the two Ninjas leaped in on the single frightened henchman.

Yori quickly knocked the henchman out; then Ron moved to stand guard at the door, while Yori inspected the room. The room seemed to be a cramped lab, covered with gadgets, and devices that she was not sure she wanted to understand. She pulled out a small video camera and did a sweep of the room for Area 52's intelligence division, and then plugged a small computer module into the room's only computer to download its hard drive. Fortunately, the two had entered fast enough that the man was unable to log out, so the files were wide open.

As Yori was making her way back out of the room she paused by a table that had a small box on it. She pulled her camera back out to tape the contents and froze as she found a very familiar blue devise on top of the contents.

"Ron-san," she whispered

Ron quickly turned and looked at her in surprise. It had been a long time since Yori had ever said "-san" when referring to anyone, since she had been working to improve her English, among her other languages. She had told Ron that in order to be taken seriously in her new role she needed to sound as fluent in the customs and languages of any group that she was working at, though it still bothered Ron since he saw it as a sign that their relationship was becoming more distant.

He walked over to where Yori was standing and nearly collapsed in shock when he noticed what was in the box. It was filled with Kim Possible's personal affects.

* * *

Shego looked over at her phone and willed herself not to pick it up and dial Sam's or Kim's numbers again. It had been four hours since they went their separate ways before Shego had tried to call Kim to see if she wanted a break from babysitting. When she couldn't get an answer from the redhead she tried to call Sam with similar results. At the time she was not very concerned since the two were supposed to be in a library, and most libraries frown on people using phones inside.

What began to concern the former thief was when she went over to library and could not locate either woman. It had taken over an hour to search the entire building; after all it was a six-story library. After spending what she had thought to be an eternity running through the bookworm's paradise She began to get very concerned. She quickly broadened her search to the whole campus, and even called Wade to see if he knew anything.

Wade did confirm that Kim was doing a mission for the government, though he did not know where the government had taken her; however after Shego 'politely' asked him to look into it he said he would. The part that concerned Wade was when Shego asked about Samantha. He openly said that he had no clue as to what happened to the young woman, but also reminded Shego that they were talking about a college freshman who was loose on a campus during the first week of classes. After looking at the situation from that perspective Shego swore that if Sam was not in trouble now she would wish she had been when Shego caught up to her.

At the moment the distressed woman was sitting at home resting from her search. She looked at the clock and swore to herself when she saw that it was already Ten o'clock at night. That meant that the two missing ladies had been gone for nearly ten hours without word. Wade had already searched the campus surveillance footage, and confirmed that Sam had left as soon as Kim had been called away to her mission. He had also informed her that the Kimmunicator was not transmitting, and that he could not seem to reestablish any kind of link with it. Even the government had told him that they had lost communication with her and their pilot, though they still wouldn't divulge where the pilot had taken Kim.

Just as Shego began to get her things together to return to the search her phone went off, and she practically flew to the phone to answer it, "Kim! Sam! Is that you!" she answered anxiously.

"Sorry Shego," Wade reluctantly answered, "I'm afraid it's just me."

Shego growled in frustration, then softened her voice as she calmed down, "So what have you heard." She asked slowly. She could not believe how helpless she was feeling over those two. She had never really cared for Kim in the past, and Samantha was just some job like Drakken had been. She could find no real reason to care about either one of them, yet here she was freaking out about them being missing.

"Well nothing much," he began to explain, "Though I did find something interesting, but I'm not sure if it is related, not yet anyways."

"What is it" demanded Shego. At the moment she would take almost anything.

"Ron's chip just became active in the same region that Kim was supposed to go to," Wade explained.

"So?" Shego asked.

"Well I checked the Satellite imaging for the region, and pulled up the communications for the location that the chip is in," wade continued. "Since it's night the Satellite visual is low, though infrared shows a couple of fires, a possible explosion, and a lot of flashes that resemble the plasma blasts common with mad scientists."

"Sounds like princesses calling cards," Shego mused. Explosions, energy weapons fire, and flames generally followed Kim Possible everywhere she went, and with the Buffoon already there it only made since that Kim would be on scene.

"So do you have a ride for me yet?" asked Shego as she walked to her room to change into her cat-suit.

"Ride?" Wade echoed

"Like I'm waiting here," Shego scoffed.

"What about Sam?" Wade asked in confusion.

Shego paused as she heard the question. If there was a chance that Sam was with Kim then She would be headed to the scene like a shot. However there was no chance that Kim would have taken a person she was supposed to protect on any mission, let alone one that had the chance of going from bad to worse like this one had.

"Look I'll keep looking into this," Wade offered." If I find any information on Samantha, or Kim I'll let you know. In the meantime I think it would be best if someone is still there to look for Sam. I mean if she is in trouble it'll probably be there right?"

"Right," Shego answered, "Talk to ya later," she said hanging up. She then walked over to the couch and retrieved her keys before going back out to search for Sam again. _This is going to be one looong night_.

* * *

Agent Omega laughed to himself as he considered how easy his task would be. Twenty-five agents from the original group were waiting with heavy repeating turrets to greet the remaining Global Justice agents in a bloody ambush. Two of the mysterious rescue team members were trailing close behind those GJ insects though that only added more targets to shoot at. Already another twenty-five agents, led by him, were closing close behind the targets to be sure that any survivors would be dealt with. As for the other three surviving 'rescuers' the other half of his men should be handling them about now, and then they would find the bodies of the two snipers, and deal with them if either still lived.

Yes this is a good day indeed, he mused to himself. Omega had learned long ago that advancement was swift indeed in WEE if the person was smart and ambitious enough to seize opportunities, and today was most definitely an opportunity not to be missed.

* * *

Yori paused as she and Ron neared a corner. Ron leaned back against the wall to minimize his profile and guarded their backs as she looked around the corner. About ten feet in front of them a group of about a half-dozen figures were huddled together as one of them was tending to another's injuries.

As she watched their voices reached the two hidden figures, and Ron's eyes widened as he recognized them.

"Just sit still for a moment will you!" the first one griped.

"You know if we had stayed with the plan we would not be in this position," sniped another.

"Look you little runt, we are Team Impossible! We know what we are doing," retorted a third.

"And is this part of some great plan?" the second one asked.

"Yes!" affirmed the third voice "Well, no," he amended. "Well it is all part of our general strategy."

"Look I may not be a part of an impossible team," began a fourth one. "But all I know is that when we contacted the Embassy like Will suggested there were almost twenty of us. Then when we began fighting these guys like your team suggested we were nearly wiped out."

"Look Brick why don't you be still and _quiet_ while I work ok?" asked another.

Yori backed away from the corner and looked back at Ron. "GJ?" she whispered.

Ron nodded. _Wow it is a small world_, he thought with a smile. He had recognized all three of Team Impossible, Crash, Burn, and Dash, along with Will Du, and Brick Flagg the old quarterback from High School.

Yori took a deep breath and quietly exhaled, and then called softly to the other group, "Global Justice hold your fire, we wish to approach."

She smiled to herself with amusement as she heard a rustle of people grabbing guns and flipping of the safeties. _Did they not learn anything during the past two days?_

Ron exhaled slowly in exasperation and called to the group, "Will, can you guys relax? It's me, Ron Stoppable."

"Stoppable?" echoed four rather surprised voices.

"Is Kim Possible with you?" asked Will.

"Can we approach without getting shot?" asked Ron.

"Sure," called Dash without hesitation.

Ron and Yori carefully made their way up to the group and the two teams sized each other up.

Team Impossible was still wearing their trademark suits, only with a GJ emblem in the place of their old TI one. Will was in a running suit of GJ colors, and the other two were in typical Global Justice uniforms. All of them except the injured one were armed with the strange plasma weapons, while the other one held an old AK-47. The other team seemed relieved at first, then they noticed Yori's eyes through her mask and Dash angrily exclaimed, "You're not Kim Possible!"

"I never claimed to be her," Yori replied patiently, "However I am Ron Stoppable's superior, and it is still our honor to bring you to Dr. Director."

"Wait, you know a way out?" Brick asked from his place on the floor.

"Yes we have a way out if you wish to leave."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Brick asked, as he tried to stand up.

"Wait, what about Kim?" Ron asked.

"Kim Possible is here?" Will asked.

"We are not sure," Yori explained, "However we did find her communication devise, along with a set of her clothes inside of a storeroom not far from here."

"Then she's probably been taken prisoner," Crash concluded.

"Team Impossible never leaves anyone behind," Dash declared.

"Neither do friends," Brick added as he propped himself against a wall for support.

"May I say something here," Will began to object.

"NO!" The other Global Justice personnel shouted.

"Look we really don't have any idea where she is right now," Ron explained to them, "It might be better to get all of you out of here and then look for her ourselves."

"Ron, we know the risks," Brick replied, "but what you need right now is a guide and we've been exploring these passages for several hours now, and that makes us the closest thing to experts that you have right now."

"Also we are not entirely helpless," Will added. "We took these weapons off of WEE agents that we defeated, and they are very effective against their new body armor."

"Very well," Yori relented, "It shall be our honor to rescue Kim Possible together before leaving."

* * *

"_Agent Omega, come in_," buzzed a voice over Omega's headset.

"Omega here."

"_The Global Justice team is within twenty feet of the ambush point_," the voice reported. "_Move into position to cut off their retreat_."

"Acknowledged," Omega signed off.

The plan was so simple that it had no possible way to fail. The Global Justice team would turn a corner and would be immediately strafed by fire from the heavy repeater turrets. Even near misses by the plasma fire would be enough to melt through Kevlar armor, and flesh. When the survivors tried to turn around they would find themselves facing volley after volley from twenty-five heavily armed henchmen led by Omega that couldn't possibly miss in the narrow confines of the corridors. In short it would be the most ideal Turkey Shoot that any of the henchmen would ever be in.

Suddenly the group of henchmen was shaken as an explosion rocked the corridor.

"Control what's happening!" Omega barked into his mike.

"_Omega, hold position until further notice, Control out!_"

"Control? Control Respond!" _What's going on?_ Omega demanded silently as he was cut off. There wasn't supposed to be any large scale fighting anymore, so who was firing up there, and why was Control so nervous?

* * *

"_Now_ it begins," Bás said with a smile as the second and third explosion rocked positions that the WEE henchmen were using for cover. One of the vehicles attacking finally became visible as three henchmen ran across the tarmac to escape the onslaught. The vehicle looked like a large ATV, or 4-wheeler as Bás had heard some of the WEE people refer to them over the past couple of days. The main difference was that this ATV was flying. They had Anti-gravity disks where the tires should have been and the disks changed their angles in order to provide maneuverability and the glow on the disks increased as the vehicle gained altitude, or dimmed as it descended. It also looked like these new intruders were well armed. Behind the driver and passenger rose a pole that held what appeared to be a large repeater cannon that movements matched that of the pilot's head. Also sitting on either side of the cannon sat small mini-rocket, or mortar pods that were responsible for the explosions that the WEE personnel were suffering from.

"Hover-bikes," Bás noted. "For a while there I was afraid they would miss the party." He watched as the three Henchmen turned to fire at the tormenting Hover-bike only to be shredded by two smaller plasma cannons that sat in front of the bikes windscreen.

Bás continued to watch as three other Hover-bikes descended to where they were visible. Two of them broke off to engage a large group of twenty-five henchmen that had raced from the terminal complex. The other two were systematically firing on anything that moved in order to secure the main runways from any counter attack.

After less than a minute of the heavy assault the bikes withdrew to a point outside the terminal where the henchmen had ran out of. They then slowed to gentle hover about thirty feet above the ground and the four passengers leaped to the ground, and then dashed into the building while the bikes broke into two pairs to continue their patrol.

Bás slowly pulled out a handset and keyed the mike. "All units, begin."

* * *

Yori and Dash carefully made their way to the bend in the corridor and knelt against the wall. Then Dash pulled a small cord out of his belt and attached one end to his wristwatch and a small ball to the other end. He then carefully rolled the tiny ball around the corner. After a couple of seconds the faceplate on the watch glowed, and then a small holographic picture came to life. Dash frowned and adjusted the knobs on his watch to pan the ball camera's view. The recordings showed three large cannons set on tripods, with a prefabricated barricade placed in front of them. Because of the angle of the camera it was impossible to get a positive count of the number of people behind the position, but it was a safe bet that there were enough to handle the small GJ group.

The two made their way back to the group and Yori walked over to the man who was carrying the team's extra gear. "What kind of explosives do you have?"

* * *

Agent Omega decided that he had had enough waiting on Control to give him permission to finish the mission and ordered his men to get ready to attack. He heard a rapid session of clicks as his men turned their safeties off and then they were ready. He motioned them forward and they began to creep to the Global Justice position.

Everything was going well until the men heard the sound of heavy boots rapidly approaching. The group stopped as the men in the rear scanned the hallway in order to find the intruders. When the report came back negative they whole group started moving again.

When they were within twenty feet of the GJ agents Omega heard a scream behind him. Immediately all of the henchmen turned around and several were knocked over by a flying henchman. He hit the group in the center and threw several more men to the ground. Omega was distracted for a moment by the sound of an explosion coming from the direction of the GJ men, and before he could respond the lights overhead died. In the confusion that followed Omega managed to put on his pair of night-vision goggles which proved almost useless with how many plasma shots where being fired down the corridor at the new threat.

His people were in a full panic, between the screams of wounded, the shots raining down the corridor, and flying henchmen, or in some cases parts if flying henchmen, and the sounds of more explosions, and shots coming from GJ's direction, there was really no way to see what was really happening. Then a body hit him from his front knocking him to the ground.

As Agent Omega pushed off the dead body he finally saw the enemy. They were moving faster than anyone he had ever seen. It was like watching a blur as the intruders bashed the henchmen against walls, the floor, and each other. They held weapons but only used them to hammer down any henchman foolish enough to try to stay in the fight. The only shots being fired were by the panicked WEE agents who were trying to pick targets in the dark.

When the last man hit the ground the new intruders walked around searching for any more conscious targets. When nothing moved they began to make their way towards the GJ position farther ahead. Omega decided the smartest thing to do was remain where he lay, but when the lights sudden came back on he let out a yelp of surprise. Unfortunately for him one of the closer men heard him and the last thing that Omega saw was a rapidly descending rifle but coming at his head.


	10. Chapter 10

For disclaimer please see Chapter 1

* * *

Yori, Dash, Crash, Burn, and Ron were all waiting with primed grenades when they heard noise coming from behind them. "Now!" shouted Yori and they all threw their grenades down at the turrets. The first five were all fragmentation and they exploded within a second of each other. Judging by the screams of the henchmen Yori believed that they must have hit a few of the gunners, but she wanted to be sure that no one was manning those guns when her people charged in there.

The five of them primed their second wave and threw them down the corridor like before, only a little farther this time. Only this time as soon as the sound of the blasts reached the group everyone charged down the corridor at the gun position. Even Brick Flagg was with them, being carried by Crash.

The scene was utter chaos. The turrets had been completely destroyed in the explosions, and judging by the carnage, so had most of the enemy team. There was gore everywhere; reminding Ron of the times that he had visited haunted houses. Even the lights in that part of the hallway had been torn apart, leaving only the lights from farther down the hallway to light this portion; however that left long shadows dancing on an already gruesome scene. Few of the henchmen tried to resist, and those were few that did found that they were no match for the tired, angry, and heavily armed GJ team members.

"They kept too close together," noted a voice behind the team. The GJ group swung around to train their weapons on the new arrival even as he held up his hand and laughed. "Take it easy we're here to help."

There were four new arrivals and they were dressed in a way that none of the GJ people had ever seen before. These new people were wearing armored suits that Yori and Ron had only heard about in Sci-Fi or Anime in the past. The suits had dull mesh body suits, which looked like woven metal with what looked like cloth coated pads attached over most of the body. The largest of these were large gauntlets, painted a dull black which ran from their wrists up to their elbows. The helmets had a full faceplate with slits for the wearer to see out, though even those looked like they had glass or plastic layer underneath for protection.

As Ron and Yori looked over the four newcomers they noted that the forth member in the back looked different. She was shorter than the other three and her armor looked lighter, without the thick under layer. She also only had a sidearm instead of the rifles that the others carried, and she had a large backpack that they others did not carry. The thing that caught Yori's attention first however was that her helmet lacked the full faceplate, and instead had a tinted plastic one, that resembled what a riot officer would use.

"Who are you?" demanded Yori.

"My name is Nick Cridon," said the one in the front. "Dr Director sends her compliments, but I think that now is neither the time nor place for formal introductions."

"How do we know we can trust you?" asked Burn.

"Because we haven't shot at you," retorted the woman in the four person team.

"Easy Angel," Nick told her, "they're just nervous."

"Wait a minute, Kim's still down here," Brick interjected.

"Kim?" Nick asked "Kim who?"

"Kim Possible," explained Yori. "We found her clothes in one of the rooms back where you came. We think she may still be down here in one of the rooms."

"Did you already set up an escape plan?" Nick asked.

"Yes," replied Yori. "Our people are waiting in a car to take us to the embassy."

"Well go make contact with them, and then head to the tarmac," Instructed Nick. "Dr Director arranged for you all to be airlifted to her headquarters." He then turned to his people and continued. "Angel will go with me and find Kim, while you two escort them out of here. Dismissed."

* * *

Bás changed into his combat gear as he listened to the early battle reports. So far the new aggressors were holding their own, despite being outnumbered three to one. _Sadly they probably believe that they are winning_, he growled laughed to himself as another explosion rocked his room. So far only one of the bikes had been hit, and that was just a graze to its side. The only saving grace for Bás's people was that the shot had done enough damage to force the craft down, though now it seemed that the pilot had linked up with the people that were already on the ground.

Bás put on his helmet and tuned into the frequency that his people were using and listened to what was happening, in order to better understand the situation.

"_Fire-Team Three to Fire-Team One, where are you!_"

"_Fire-Team One requesting assista-_"

At the sound of one of his men being cut off Bás keyed his mike and shouted, "Corporal White report!"

"_Private Otto here _sir," came a nervous reply, "_Corporal White is dead_."

"Otto, bring your team to my position immediately. Team's Two and Three regroup at the armory. Grab whatever you need to eliminate those bikes. Utilize the WEE swine if you have to, just bring those bikes down!" Bás growled in frustration at the early loss of one of his team leaders, and walked to a window to see what was happening outside. _So you really do believe that you can win? Guess what, this is just the dress rehearsal_.

* * *

Kim's head felt like it was about to explode. Two WEE agents had been in earlier to start the interrogation, or what they called an interrogation. It had really only consisted of a severe beating, with promises that if she did not cooperate soon, then things would get much worse. Kim had merely spat on one of the men's face in response, and had been knocked out as a result.

Kim slowly came back around to the land of the living, and opened one swollen eye only to discover that the room was pitch black. She glanced around trying to make out anything in the darkness when she heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Kim closed her eye and lowered her head so that she would look like she was still unconscious, as she heard the door break open.

She heard the footsteps enter slowly and felt the beam of a strong light flash across her face. Then she heard a familiar voice through the darkness.

"Angel I found her, get in here she needs help!"

Kim opened her eyes and groaned as the bright light nearly blinded her. The man holding the light lowered it slightly when he saw that it was hurting her. Through the shadows she saw a young woman approaching her with a large backpack in one hand and a large helmet in the other. When she was right next to Kim she bent over and set her gear down, and then began searching her bag for something. Kim strained her swollen eyes in the dim light to get a better look at the woman's hair and face, but could only make out the short black hair with a light color hair-band holding it out of her face.

"Yori?" Kim asked hoarsely.

"Kim?" the young lady replied with surprise. 'You're awake?"

"Sam?" Kim blurted out in shock. _No, this can't be happening. I'm dreaming! That's it. This is a really weird freakish dream_.

As the two newcomers worked to free Kim for her restraints Kim tried to work her mind around what was happening, however she was so groggy after her ordeal that it was like trying to find her way through a fog. When her last restraint was removed, and Samantha and Nick gently helped her down from the wall Kim finally gave up the fight to understand as she fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

Gemini looked at the monitors around the control room and felt a cold chill course through his body. The new attackers had managed to reduce his henchmen to around twenty total, and of those barely a dozen were in any kind of fighting condition. Added to this the local government had apparently taken notice of their largest airport being blown apart, and was in the process of sending in a fairly large military convoy of tanks and armored transports to regain control of the situation. Also he had lost contact with the interrogators, so he had to assume that Miss Possible was free again.

On the bright side Bás seemed to be retaking ground in the battle on the surface. His people had just shot down a second one of the flying vehicles, and were making life very difficult for the remaining two. Also it seemed that Bás was personally leading a team to dispose of the GJ refugees that were gathering at the front of the terminal complex.

This left Gemini with a small dilemma. According to Super-villain tradition, in a case where the losing a lair was imminent (and a military task force approaching the airport certainly fell into that category) the proper course of action would be to destroy the lair and leave. However if he were to destroy the airport right now he would lose all of the equipment in the area, and Bás might be killed, meaning Gemini would never have the chance to get more of it. Also it looked like Bás's people were actually winning the battle at the moment. _But can they beat an army after this fight?_

Gemini looked over at the data again, paced the room once, paused to look at the screens again while rubbing the back of his head, and then finally rested his gaze on the man sitting at the closest station. "Give the order to evacuate, and contact Bás and tell him that we are shutting down our operations here permanently. Then set the charges for fifteen minutes."

Without a moment's hesitation the man did as he was told. Gemini smiled at his people's dedication to their tasks. _If only my little sister were as respectful of me_. Without another word Gemini left the room to make his escape.

* * *

"_WHAT!_" Bás screamed to the henchman on the other end of the line. "Tell him to call it off!"

"_Sorry sir_," the henchman apologized. "_The timer is already set and cannot be turned off except by Gemini's personal order, and he has already left_."

"Wait," Bás paused as something occurred to him. "What kind of explosion are we talking about?"

"_Ever hear of a place called Nagasaki?_" the WEE agent asked. "_Imagine a tactical nuke with the same payload as the one used there_."

"With twelve minutes to go? Thanks for the warning, bye," Bás sneered, and then smashed his fist into the nearby wall with rage after cutting the connection. _FOOL!_ he mentally screamed. _We would have won, but for the coward_.

Bás opened the channel to his teams and began to issue a final set of orders. "Team Two, and Team Three retreat to the Rendezvous point and await evac. Team One and I will meet you there. Over and Out!"

* * *

"Jackson, we're lost aren't we," Feldman sighed as the duo wandered through another corridor in the seemingly endless maze beneath the airport.

"Hey who got us out of that Control Tower?" Jackson sapped back.

"Dude, we both jumped at the same time. Oh and don't even try to take credit for finding this place, because all you did was land in that old water tower."

"But I did find the hidden lever," Jackson bragged.

"No all you did was climb down the water tower's chain which happened to serve as the 'hidden lever,'" Feldman cringed as he remembered falling through the rusted roof of the water tower and into the filthy stagnant water inside it. He was surprised that they actually survived the explosion at all. It had been more luck than experience that had allowed him to see the bombs before the blast, just as it had been dumb-luck that Jackson had grabbed that chain while climbing down the water tower after their fall. _I guess Ron was right, _he considered,_ there really must be dumb-_skill _in this world_.

Jackson's face fell as he pretended to pout, "Come on man can't you give me any credi-OOFF," he was cut off as a door in front of the two flew open and a WEE henchman bolted out of it and right into Jackson. "Hey I caught a prisoner!" he shouted with joy while trying to hold the man down.

Feldman shook his head and sighed before leaning down to pull the henchman to his feet. "Man I swear sometimes you're worse than Stoppable."

Jackson's face fell again and he shot to his feet. "_PLEASE_ tell me you're joking! I can't be that bad, can I?"

Feldman knitted his eyebrows in concentration as he thought on it, "Well you seem to operate on 'dumb skill' just like Stoppable, and you always seem to get your breaks through random accidents like him, and-"

"Ok now you're just messing with me."

"You've got to admit you do make it rather easy," Feldman laughed.

"Look can you just take me to jail now," begged the henchman.

"What's you're hurry," asked Feldman.

"Uhhh," the man stammered.

"The place is rigged to blow isn't it," Jackson asked.

"Hun-huh," the man answered.

"Wow," Feldman observed impressed. "How did you know?"

"Easy," Jackson replied. "I just looked in the room he ran out of and saw the timer on his monitor. Oh bye the way it looks like we only have ten minutes left."

_Has to be dumb-skill_.

* * *

"And here I thought that it would actually look better in the morning," Ron commented sarcastically when he and Yori made it to the escape car. The sun was already making its way into the sky and he was relieved to see it. Despite being sore, exhausted, and emotionally drained, the mere sight of the dawn was enough to convince him that things might actually be alright.

The other team from Area 52 was already assembled there, and their leader physically relaxed a little when he saw Ron and Yori approach.

"For a minute there I didn't think you'd make it," he said as he stepped toward the duo. He looked behind both of them and then his expression changed as he grew concerned. "Did you find them?"

"Yes we did," Yori responded, and waved towards the door that they had just exited. "They are just wary of surprises, so we came out first to assure them that there wouldn't be any."

As she finished talking the surviving Global Justice team slowly made their way out of the building and cautiously moved to the waiting van that the other team had been guarding.

One of the team members nodded as the last GJ agent boarded the van and then climbed into the drivers seat. "Let's get outta here."

"Actually now we meet Dr Director's plane," Ron corrected. "We just found out that she sent a ride for us."

"When did you find out about this?"

"A few minutes ago," Yori shrugged. "They are waiting for you."

Ron looked over at Yori suspiciously as he head her mention the work 'you' "Don't you mean all of 'us' Yori?"

"No," Yori shook her head. "I meant what I said. Feldman and Jackson are still in the airport and I will locate them before leaving. Do not worry I have another way out of here."

"We'll drop the GJ guys over at the plane and come back to help you," the other team leader spoke up. "You helped us, now it's time to repay the debt."

Yori opened up her mouth to object, but before she could say anything the front of the van exploded. As the engine of the van was blown apart everyone standing fell to the ground for cover. Ron was the first to his feet and he ran to the burning vehicle as the passengers stumbled out. The damage was not as bad as he feared, the blast had only wiped out the engine, but the passenger compartment was still intact. Fortunately the engine was off at the time of the blast so fuel had not been pumping into it during the explosion.

Yori scanned the area for the source of the explosion as the others were checking for injured and it did not take long to spot the culprit. A man was slowly walking to the group at a steady pace while loading a new power-pack into his plasma rifle. He was dressed in a similar fashion to the group that had saved her and Ron in the underground tunnels, though Yori quickly recognized the uniform as being from the people that she observed in the security room. His face was hidden behind his full helmet, but from his body language she suspected that the man was actually bored with what was happening as he came to a halt mere feet from her and the others.

Yori fell into a defensive fighting stance and pulled out her fans to show her seriousness to the newcomer. "Who are you?" she demanded to know. The man cocked his head to the side at the question and remained quiet.

Ron joined Yori and assumed a similar fighting position, but kept his blade sheathed for the moment. "You heard her," he commented with a business-like tone, "What's your name?"

The stranger straightened up his posture and scanned the area as if he were looking for someone else that the duo might be addressing. After looking around the whole area he turned back to the duo then raised his weapon and pointed at the other Area 52 team where they stood.

Ron looked at the weapon for a second, turned to see where he was aiming, and his face paled "INCOMING!" he screamed as the man fired.

The first shot took one of the other team members in the chest, and burned straight through his body. Yori reacted quickly and threw a Shuriken at the man's gun. The knife impacted the mussel of the weapon throwing off the aim long enough for the rest of the people to dive for any available cover.

As the attacker brought his plasma rifle back onto target Ron dived at him from the side throwing him to the ground. Yori then took the opportunity to run up and grab the rifle, trying to wrest it from his grip. As she pulled on the weapon she heard the man laughing at her and Ron.

"This may actually be amusing after all," he laughed and then leaped to his feet, knocking Ron to the pavement. Yori then found herself hanging from the rifle and about a foot off the ground. The man turned his head and looked right at her for a second and then spun on his heel and tossed Yori into the wrecked van.

The attacker then brought his gun up and took aim on the downed Ninja, but before he could fire he found himself being picked up and thrown across the pavement and into the wall of the terminal building.

"Had enough yet!" Ron shouted to the man as he slowly picked himself up. The man brushed himself off, picked up his weapon and paused as he took in Ron's appearance. Ron was glowing a bright blue, and appeared to be floating off of the ground all by himself.

"Let me guess," the man finally said, "This is that Mystical garbage that I've been hearing so much about?"  
"Mystical Monkey Powers are not garbage," Yori grunted while trying to stand up.

"I say they are," the man affirmed, and rapidly pulled his plasma rifle up, and fired a barrage at Ron. Ron quickly levitated to the side to avoid the blasts and moved right into a hit. _Where did he come from_, he wondered as the man pounded on him with almost supernatural speeds. After a few seconds the man finally hit Ron hard enough to knock out the young man and he fell to the ground.

"RON," Yori screamed as she ran to the unconscious blonde.

"Enough of this, everyone open fire!" ordered Dash, then he put action to words as the rest of the people fired on the attacker with their collection of acquired plasma weapons and assault rifles. The first plasma shot hit the man in the center of his abdomen and threw him down, while most of the other shots went wild. After only a second thee survivors held their fire and watched for any sign of movement.

"Impressive," the man said from his position on the ground. "Well somewhat impressive," he amended as he effortlessly stood up and retrieved his own weapon.

"Impossible," Dash exclaimed as he saw that the man was completely unharmed. "That was a direct hit!"

The man did not even bother to respond to Dash's comments. He merely looked over at the hero and then leaped from where he stood over to the other man's position with alarming speed. With an open hand slap he sent the large man to the ground unconscious, and then jumped over to Crash and kicked the man in the stomach, sending him flying. Yori jumped to her feet and ran to their enemy as he beat the survivors mercilessly one at a time. She finally reached him as he was about to hammer Brick Flagg where he lay and leaped at the attacker.

Moving faster than she though possible Yori assaulted the man with every move she could remember, while trying her best to avoid any retaliation. As she hit and kicked the man she found that all of her attacks were stopping about an inch from the man's body. _He has an energy shield!_ she realized. She had seen prototypes of the technology at Area 52, but aside from Ron's stories about Kim Possible's battle-suit she had never heard of any such devises being used in the real world before. It only took a few seconds after her discovery to notice that her gloves and boots were beginning to become scorched from the continual abuse from impacting the man's shield, but she kept up her assault anyways.

"Enough," the man finally said, and with incredible speed he backhanded Yori across the face sending her to the ground. Yori hissed in agony as she impacted the pavement and she smelled the burned cloth and flesh from where she had been hit on her cheek. She looked up to see that the man was moving off to where Brick was crawling away and as he approached the young man he pulled out a knife and moved in on him.

"NO!" Yori cried out as she flung herself at him. The move caught her opponent off guard and he fell to the ground. As he got to his feet he found himself being assaulted by the small woman who was coming at him like a wild cat.

* * *

"So I'm guessing that this is the real Control Room?" Jackson asked as the trio entered the room that the Henchman had been fleeing.

"Could be," the henchman shrugged.

"You know you might want to be a little more cooperative," Jackson growled.

"Why?" the man asked. "What can you guys do to me if I don't?"

"Well if you don't cooperate we'll just have to tie you to a chair and leave you in the airport," Feldman answered seriously, then his expression brightened as he glanced at the image of a military convoy making its way into the airport, "whereas if you help us by disarming the bomb, I promise to not leave you to the tender mercy of the very angry locals."

"Point taken," The man answered when he saw the live feed of hundreds of troops pouring out of armored transports.

* * *

Ron slowly came back to his senses and as his sight cleared he could not believe the sight. Yori was on the mystery man like glue, and it seemed like she was an entirely different person than the one he knew. Her mask was off and her expression was a mixture of pain and rage. Also her fans were lying on the ground damaged and useless, as was her other weapons, leaving only her body as a weapon, and that was rapidly taking damage as the fight went on.

While Yori fought to keep her opponent at bay through sheer determination Ron carefully stood up and drew the Lotus Blade. He then tried several transformations before settling on a standard Glaive design with a four foot staff and then gave out the best war cry he could muster and charged. Both Yori and the enemy stopped for a second as Ron approached, but the shock was short lived. Moving faster than anyone Ron had ever met, aside from Kim when she fought the super fast robots Drakken invented, the enemy soldier dodged Ron's attack and delivered an open-handed palm strike to the blonde's chest.

Ron gasped for breath as he heard his own ribs crack and break under the assault, and he found himself back on the ground as if by magic. He shook his head to clear it, and noticed his opponent move to stand over him. He watched as the man pulled a knife out and knelt to drive it into him. Ron closed his eyes to prepare for the strike and was surprised to hear Yori's voice as she bellowed her own war-cry.

He opened his eyes in time to see Yori crash into the man again and like before she was all over the man, only this time she was very careful to keep her body between him and Ron. Every time he moved Yori would adjust her position to block any attempt to close in on Ron's prone form.

* * *

Shego slumped down in the driver's seat of her car and banged her head off of the headrest. _This is insane! _she told herself_. I am making a wreck out of myself over a teenage punk and Kimmie. Why do I even care about them!_ Several ideas came to mind but she quickly dismissed them.

_I am _EVIL. She reminded herself as the light in the intersection turned green. _I just need the kid back because that's what pays the bills. As for Kimmie, well she can take care of herself, right?_

* * *

Finally after a couple of minutes of holding the young ninja back the man finally sighed in frustration, "Although I am enjoying this little workout I am afraid I am running out of time for this little game." At that Yori screamed in anger and tried to launch herself at him again, only this time before she could reach her target the soldier deftly sidestepped her and delivered a crushing openhanded hit to the back of her head. With a huff Yori hit the pavement and went limp.

"Too bad," the man sadly observed, "That woman had real spirit." He then drew his knife out again and walked over to where Yori had fallen and knelt next to her. "If only the others were like you I wouldn't feel so guilty about this," he whispered to her and raised his knife to strike.

"Yori!" Ron tried to scream through the pain.

"Hold," a voice came calm and evenly from right next to the enemy goon. The man's shoulders heaved as he gave out a frustrated breath and he turned his head to look at the newcomer. When he saw the dark armored legs with the thin blood-red stripe running down the sides he yelped in surprise and fright and fell back onto all fours, and tried to crawl away like a frightened animal.

"I said, _Hold_." Nick repeated firmly. With that the enemy soldier stopped crawling, and scampered to his feet. Ron looked over to Nicks right and saw Samantha standing in front of a stretcher that held someone though he could not make out who. As he watched Samantha drew her weapon and aimed it at the man who had been causing all the problems first and then shifted her aim in another direction.

"Trouble?" came a new voice from the direction that Samantha was aiming.

"Not if you take him and go," Nick replied.

To Ron's horror Nick motioned for the man to leave and he ran to the new person without hesitation.

"Two minutes?" the new man asked.

"Sixty seconds," Nick replied, "and your time has started."

With that both of the men left and Nick moved over to check on Yori. When she started to stir Nick gently placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her, "Easy Yori, it's over, and help is here."

* * *

"Where are they?" Shego screamed in frustration as she paced around the living room. It was three in the morning and she had just returned from searching the entire city. So far all she had found was two attempted store robberies, three attempted muggings (two of them on her), five drug dealers (all of which took offense of the strange woman asking about a missing, possibly kidnapped student), and over a dozen drunks which she left alone. All in all she had seen a lot, took out petty criminals, and was still not any closer to finding either Samantha or Kim.

Shego stormed over to where her phone lay and dialed Wade's number for what seemed like the thousandth time.

"Shego?" the groggy teen asked.

"Duh, who were you expecting," Shego barked at him. "Heard anything yet?"  
"Only that the fighting near where Kim is supposed to be has died down," Wade answered. Seems the local military cleaned up a huge mess there and everything is back to normal. Unfortunately no names have been released from the whole thing so I really don't know if Kim was actually there."

"Have you tried the dopey sidekick?"

"Kim and Ron haven't talked to each other in a long time," Wade replied in a sad tone. "I've gotten a hit off of the chip in him in the area, but that just means that _he_ was there."

"You've got him chipped?" Shego asked in shock.

"Long story, don't ask."

"You got it," before the conversation could get back on topic the front doorbell rang. "I'll talk to you later kid, keep on it."

"Sure," Wade sighed out dejectedly.

Shego made her way to the door just as someone opened it with a key.

"Sam!" Shego cried out in shock as the younger woman stumbled into the room, utterly exhausted. Before she could even get ten feet into the house Shego ran forward and gathered the teen into a tight hug. Samantha grunted under the strain but quickly returned the embrace. Shego quickly realized that something was wrong when Samantha began to cry against her, and soon her whole body began shaking as she wept. Shego pulled back to get a beet look at the girl. "Sam what's wrong?" she begged to know. "Are you hurt?"

Samantha shook her head slowly and wiped her eyes.

"Shego could you tell us where Kim's room is?" Nick asked from the doorway.

"Why?" Shego asked him suspiciously.

"Kim fell asleep on the way back," Nick explained.

"More like fainted from her experience," Sam mumbled.

"What!" Shego shrieked. "Someone had better do some explaining, and fast!"

"Shego I swear you'll get an explanation," Nick answered, raising his hands in an open handed gesture to quiet down. "But for now we all need sleep, and Kim needs to be put to bed.

"Shego and I will take care of it," Sam almost whispered. Her face was still a mess, and it was apparent that she was struggling to keep herself together. "She is our friend after all."

'_Friend'_ the word hit Shego hard, and several of the old reasons for her torturing herself that night came flooding back. _No, I can't be one of Kimmie's friends now, can I?_

As Nick led the stretcher carrying Kim into the door, everything else seemed to leave through the window. Her face was covered with scratches and bruises, and her body was draped in a thin blanket. Shego quickly ushered Nick and the other stretcher bearer into Kim's room, chastising them constantly about how they were being to rough on the poor redhead.

Finally when the two men had gently eased Kim into her bed, Shego practically threw them out of the room and went about the process of tending to younger woman's wounds.

"I've already done that," Sam said softly from the doorway.

"You'll forgive me if I do it myself," Shego retorted bitterly. She was still angry with the teen for disappearing that day, and with the condition Kim was in, she was not in the mood to even pretend to be polite.

"I . . . didn't know . . ." Sam muttered.

"Didn't know what?" Shego asked, turning to her. She paused as she saw that Sam was crying again. She wrapped her arms around herself as she slowly sank to the floor, shaking with every sob. Shego moved over to the teen and carefully collected her in her arms trying to calm her down. _This is too weird_, Shego commented to herself. _I can't deal with this; I shouldn't have to deal with this!_ She shook her head as she quietly held the teenager and tried to figure out what was happening with her life. As of noon she had been living a simple life as a bodyguard, and College Kinesiology teacher, and now she was in the room with one physically beaten young woman, and another who was emotionally distraught, and she still had no idea of how either had ended up that way.

_Well,_ she considered bitterly_, they say the first day of classes is always the hardest. _Another thought hit her and she nearly groaned out loud as it sank in. _Great, I've still got classes to teach in the morning!_


	11. Chapter 11

For disclaimer see chapter 1.

* * *

Shego woke up to the sound of her alarm ringing and was about to jump up to turn it off when she felt a weight holding her down. Slowly she opened her eyes to find that she was still propped against the wall next to the door of Kim's room and Samantha was lying against her sound asleep. The alarm was blaring away in her room down the hallway, so to keep the others from waking up, so she carefully moved Samantha aside and quietly went into her room to turn the annoying devise off.

When she returned to Kim's room she found that Samantha was thrashing around on the floor and whimpering in anguish at another nightmare. Shego sighed at the teenage girl and knelt down next to her. Carefully Shego collected her in her arms and held her until she calmed down. Then as cautiously and quietly as possible she stood up, while still holding Sam, and carried her into her bedroom. After laying the troubled youth into the soft bed she began to make her way out until Sam woke up.

"No," she begged as if in pain, her eyes still shut as if she were still half asleep.

Shego went back to her side and laid a comforting hand on Sam. "I'll be back in a minute," she promised.

"No," she repeated in the same tone, then she grabbed Shego's arm protectively.

"I need to get you some medicine," Shego explained. "I'm just going over to your bathroom, I won't even leave your sight." Reluctantly the teenager released her grip on her arm, and Shego went to the medicine cabinet to see what GJ had stocked for them. Before the trio arrived Global Justice had been careful to stock the house with a wide assortment of medical supplies from cold medication to first-aid equipment that an Army Medic would be envious of. _Everything that I could ever need, except for sedatives_, she noted. _Well it could have been worse, they might have forgotten something vital, like Band-Aids_.

After a quick survey of the options in the cabinet she chose a simple nighttime cold medicine guaranteed to keep a person asleep for up to eight hours. _In addition to her current state, this should keep her out until I get back this evening_.

Shego measured out the appropriate dosage, enough for two full nights, and then gave it to Samantha. "Come on Sam," she commanded when Sam tried to push the medicine away, "drink the whole thing." _It's like being back with Hego!_

Finally, after several minutes of fighting with the exhausted girl to get her to take the medicine, and then staying with her until it took effect, Shego left and went back to Kim's room to check on the other casualty of whatever had happened the day before. The young read-headed woman's body was covered with bruises from the previous day, and one eye was even swollen shut. She looked like she had been in a car wreck, and that concerned Shego since from previous experience she couldn't imagine the Great Kimberly Ann Possible being hurt this bad by anything short of an Atom Bomb.

"No classes for either of you today," Shego whispered gently to the sleeping hero before standing up and leaving the room, and silently closed the door. She also made a mental note to get some answers out of Sam that evening as to what really happened the day before, whether she liked it or not. This was supposed to be an easy assignment where she and Kim would watch Sam at college, however it was only the second day of classes and Kim was lying in bed badly beaten, and Sam was falling apart.

_Later though_, she decided,_ much later._ _These girls need a break from yesterday_.

"I hope they will be alright alone," Shego commented aloud while making her way to take her shower. As she prepared for another long day she began to wonder why she was caring so much over those two, but after considering a few possible reasons she dropped the matter in frustration and concentrated on how to balance three schedules in one day.

* * *

Shego felt like she was going to claw her eyes out as the Biology 101 professor went on and on in what seemed like a fifty minute long sentence. _Now I remember why I majored in Education and not Science_. Her first inclination was to do what she had always done when Drakken ranted about his 'science' and just tune him out. Naturally that idea died a quick death when she remembered that her job was to take notes on his lecture for Samantha.

After getting out of Sam's first class she then had to literally run the two miles across campus to get to Kim's Introduction to Agriculture class. When the professor announced that the only graded assignment for the class was going to be a one page paper essay final on 'What You Learned In This Class' with a guaranteed A for completion she concluded that she was in the best class of all time. The lecture itself was a basic overview of the field of Agriculture, Agriculture Economics, and basically anything and everything related to any field that related to Ag majors.

All in all Shego was actually impressed with the fifty minute intro into the class, and how well the professor introduced to class, explaining that every aspect of the food industry, the textile industry, a lot of the cosmetic industry were part of Agriculture, along with Organic Chemistry, and Veterinary Science, and medial research.

It didn't take long for her to understand why Kim was interested in Majoring in Agriculture after the class. After Warmonga, and Warhok attacked Earth the poverty and starvation levels were at a historical high, and with Kim doing her Hero thing around the globe she was in the perfect position to witness it. It didn't take a lot of thought to conclude that the young woman would do everything in her power to ease the pain she was being exposed to, and double majoring in fields that would help with both production and distribution of food to the affected areas was really just an extension of her whole 'save the world' mindset.

Although Shego had never really cared for anyone beyond herself, she found herself impressed with Kim over the amount of planning that she had put into choosing her majors. She was also found herself proud of her former nemesis, and new friend. _Who, wait a minute_, her mind screamed. _Friend? No . . . more like business partner right? Well, right?_

* * *

The door to Jack Hench's office opened noiselessly as his secretary Nancy entered.

"They failed," she announced without preamble.

Jack looked up from his work and took a moment to examine her closely. "Thank you for that very informative report."

Nancy crossed her arms and cocked her hip out, as her eyes narrowed in disgust. "_He_ is still alive," she stated in frustration.

Jack leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes in a look of concentration. "Go on."

"Go on?" she exclaimed. "That's the whole story! Those morons failed to kill him, and he is probably on his way here right now!"

"_Who_ failed to kill him?" Jack calmly asked without bothering to so much as open his eyes. He knew from previous experience that when she was this anxious about something, remaining calm was the only way to get her to focus on explaining anything. _If I were to ever believe in stereotypes I would probably believe that it was her blonde roots showing_.

"I managed to get the information to the GJ mole, and they sent their rescue parties just as planned," she explained almost through gritted teeth. "They even sent those phantom troops of their in addition to the two rescue teams, and someone threw in Kim Possible for good measure."

Jack snapped forward in his chair as he heard the last part of the news. "Kim Possible was there?" Jack asked in amazement.

"Yeah, it seems like the whole thing got to be too much for Gemini, as planned," Nancy continued, while starting to pace in front of the desk. "Reliable information is sketchy at best, but it seems that Gemini captured Kim Possible, set an auto destruct when the locals began to respond to the fighting, and then fled."

"Sounds good so far," Jack noted.

"That's just it!" Nancy shouted, throwing her arms up in frustration. "The plan was going perfectly, and it seemed that Kim Possible was going to be a bonus until the end. For some reason the auto destruct failed to go off, and . . . and . . . _He_ managed to escape!"

"Have you heard from your sister about these phantom troops?" Jack asked as Nancy finished.

"No," Nancy answered. "Vivian can't even find out whether or not their connected to Area 52. She said that they are tied to GJ, and that Dr. Director is using the base as a temporary headquarters, so she believes that they work either for or with her."

"They seem too hardcore for GJ personnel," Jack mused out loud.

"But who else could they be?" Nancy asked.

"That is a good question," Jack considered. "Make it your business to find out. I want to know who they are, who they work for, and why it seems that their sole goal in life is stealing these new weapons, while rescuing Dr Director's pawns."

* * *

Shego pulled up to the house in the early afternoon and paused after turning off the car to relax. She leaned back into the car's seat and closed her eyes, and soaked in the silence. Before she left the house that morning she was too busy with Kim and Samantha to have any time for her, and after going to the school she was rushing from one class to another for the entire day. Now that she was home all she wanted to do was eat, take a nice hot bath and sleep in her warm clean bed for the next few days. Unfortunately she knew that the hardest part of the day was about to begin.

If all went well for her all Shego would find would be Kim and Samantha sleeping like she had left them. She was still berating herself over having left them for the day after what they seemed to have gone through yesterday, however part of keeping Samantha safe was keeping up the appearance of normalcy in the outside world, and she couldn't be in two places at the same time. Someone had to go to the classes or people might start asking unwarranted questions, and now was defiantly not the time for that.

After a minute of quiet solitude Shego finally willed herself out of the car and into the house. As soon as she was through the front door she was assaulted by the smell of burnt food, and the sizzling sound of someone using the stove in the kitchen. _So much for them being asleep_, she lamented sarcastically. She then decided to quickly throw her stuff into her room, check the other bedrooms to see if one of the two was still asleep, and then visit the horror that awaited her in the kitchen.

After flinging her bag into her own bedroom Shego went first to Samantha's room. Carefully she eased the door open and found the younger woman rolling violently on the mattress with all the covers strewn about the floor. As she entered the room she saw that Sam's face was covered with dried tears and sweat, and her expression looked like she was having the nightmare of the year, and judging by the state of the bed it seemed like she had been having it for quite a while.

Shego immediately crawled into Sam's bed and gathered her in her arms like she had done before, and after a few seconds of fighting her hold Sam settled down and seemed to relax into an easier sleep. They stayed like that until a crash of pans in the kitchen told Shego that her work was not quite over yet.

Carefully Shego eased out of under Sam and laid her back onto the mattress carefully. She then moved silently out of the room and closed the door before almost running to the foul-smelling kitchen._ To think that I just cleaned it on Wednesday_, she groaned when she entered the disaster area.

At the stove was a much disheveled Kim Possible still in her night cloths that Shego had dressed her in, and who seemed to be working with something in a skillet, and all around the Kitchen was what Shego would have liked to classify as the aftermath of a natural disaster.

Shego navigated her way over to the red-headed hero, careful to avoid the mess on the floor, and was halted in surprise by Kim's expression. The young woman was staring blankly at the skillet, on which were the blackened remains of what might have been eggs a long time ago. Her expression as totally blank, her eyes never moving from the skillet, it seemed as if she was completely unaware of Shego's presence.

"Princess," Shego carefully asked. Kim seemed to not hear her and continued to move the burnt food around the skillet. Shego was unsure what to do next, it wasn't like she had ever dealt with someone in this kind of state before. While working with Drakken she had never cared about the welfare of anyone including the blue villain, and even then he had never suffered this kind of breakdown. Even with Team Go her brothers had never closed themselves off when they were hurting. Like most teen boys she knew they either cried and then got over it, like Drakken, or pretended like nothing was wrong.

Deciding to simply take the initiative Shego reached out and grasped Kim's hand to stop her from stirring. "Kimmie I think it's done," she said with a small smile.

"No," Kim snapped, jerking her hand free, "I can do this."

Shego reached out again and grabbed Kim's shoulder pulling the smaller girl around to face her. "Kim it's alright," she told her firmly, not even knowing herself what she meant by the old line.

"No!" Kim screamed trying to pull out of Shego's grasp. "It's not ok!" Shego fought to hold Kim by the arms as the younger woman fought her.

"Kim stop it!" she ordered, and almost froze as Kim burst into tears.

"It's my fault!" She wailed and then collapsed. Shego caught her and lowered her to the floor, and held onto Kim, as she began to chant through tears "It's my fault, my fault, my fault."

Shego found herself shaken by what was happening with Kim. She had never experienced anything like this, outside of some movie, or TV show, but this was real life. She had seen Kim defeated before, she had actually helped to capture her, but she had never seen Kim so utterly destroyed like this, and she just did not know how to deal with it. The only thing she knew was that she found herself wanting to help her, and she did not understand that reaction either.

"Kimmie," she whispered as kindly as she could, "what happened?"

"He's dead," Kim sobbed, then she buried her head into Shego's shoulder as another wave of crying started, "I killed him, it's my fault."

"Kim I know that's not what happened," Shego replied.

"Yes it is!"

"No it isn't," Shego firmly retorted. "You aren't capable of killing anyone! Now tell me what happened yesterday."

Kim did not even bother to answer. As soon as Shego mentioned 'yesterday' she just went back to crying again. _This isn't getting me anywhere_, Shego considered in frustration. She took a deep breath to collect herself and pulled Kim out to arm's length to look her in the eyes. "Kimmie look at me," she bit back a growl when Kim looked down. "Princess I said _look at me!_" slowly Kim looked up into Shego's and appeared to be about to cry again. "Oh no you don't!" Shego retorted. "You've already don't that, now tell me what happened."

"I-I went on a mission," Kim began.

"Yes I already got that part."

"Well I got a ride with the military, in one of their jets to the place at an old airport," Kim paused as she almost broke down again.

"Take your time," Shego encouraged, "There's no rush."

"We flew over the airport and the pilot," she paused as a thought hit her, "Shego I can't even remember his name!"

"Easy Princess," she assured her, "just continue."

It took a moment for Kim to compose herself, but the reassuring feeling of Shego's presence seemed to calm her enough to go on. "Well, he did not want to land, but I-I-"

"Kimmie its alright."

"I insisted! He told me that it was dangerous and my decision and I told him that I still wanted to go!" She looked directly into Shego's eyes and wailed. "If I had only listened! He would still be alive if I listened!"

"Kimmie, whatever happened WAS-NOT-YOUR-FAULT!" Shego stated as firmly as she could. "Now please go on." She was beginning to believe that Kim needed to tell what happened as much as she needed to hear it. Kim had apparently twisted the events around to where she was solely responsible for what had happened, and by telling it, maybe, Shego could help her straighten it back out.

"Before the pilot could do much we were shot at by someone on the ground," Kim knitted her brows in concentration as she tried to recall the event. "I think the first shot hit us, but it was the second or maybe a third that actually caused us to go down. The pilot and I both ejected, and we landed near one of the hangers." She paused for a moment and shut her eyes as the memories began to flood back. Shego was afraid that Kim was about to cry again but then she continued. "I landed first. I saw an open door and ran for it. Once I was in I saw him. I think he saw where I had gone so as soon as he was loose from the parachute he ran after me." She paused again as the tears began to flow. "They shot him right in front of the door! The WEE henchmen _MURDERED_ him! The shot vaporized his whole body!"

"WEE?" Shego echoed in disbelief. "Gemini killed him?" Even though WEE had always claimed to be the ultimate evil organization on Earth, few had ever heard of them doing much worse than stealing candy from children or harassing Global Justice by interfering with their projects. In fact the only times Shego had ever heard of Gemini was after jobs where he had stolen something from GJ. The thought that they had murdered a military officer on one of Kim's missions was- _Wait_.

"Kim did this mission have anything to do with GJ?"

Kim looked up into Shego's gaze in confusion. "Uh, yes, I was supposed to rendezvous with several of their agents, why?"

"I suspect that you may have just ended up in the crossfire by accident."

"I already knew that," Kim retorted, "but that only makes what I did worse. There wasn't any reason for us to have even been there."

Shego scoffed at Kim's answer. "Come on now Kimmie, are you telling me that you are going to pull a thorough background check before responding to every emergency from now on?"

Kim stared at Shego as if she wasn't understanding a word that was being said.

"Kim listen to me, and listen good," Shego continued more softly, "No matter how well nerd boy screens your mission requests, no matter how well you prepare, or how many precautions you take, things _will_ go wrong occasionally."

Kim shook her head in defiance of what she was hearing, "But nothing like this ever-"

"Princess your parents, uncle, even your creepy brothers are all geniuses, so I know that some of that intelligence made it into you. Are you telling me that you never, ever, considered the risk of the missions you take? Or even considered how close that you and that dolt have come to this happening hundreds of times in the past?"

"But we always made it out in the end," Kim started to object, before she saw Shego's stern expression. "Alright," Kim conceded, "I've thought about it before. During the Little Diablo incident I even thought that I would die, that I failed, at least until Ron brought me out of it."

"Who knew that he was actually good for something," Shego muttered sarcastically. She shut up when Kim shot her a look and smirked at the expression. "Just kidding. If it wasn't for Stoppable we would probably still be dealing with Warmanga, and Mr. Warmonga."

"Sorry," Kim sighed, "I'm still a little sensitive in the Ex department."

"No problem," Shego waved her off. "The point of all this nauseous-ness is that, and I _really_ can't believe I'm saying this, you did the right thing by going to help those people. The fact that Gemini has completely lost his mind doesn't change that."

"But what about the pilot?"

"You _learn_," Shego emphasized. "And when you see those psychos again you will have learned what to avoid. If they shoot you down on the second pass, then parachute on the first, or better yet do what you do best and sneak in from a distance."

Kim sat still for a minute, her mind deep in thought. After a while she shook her head a sighed, "It's just that I never had anyone die on one of my missions before."

"You mean no one you _knew_," Shego corrected.

"Huh?"

"You may have won every time in the end but that doesn't mean no one got hurt," Shego explained. "When the Lowardians attacked they defeated the whole planet. Many people fought them, armies, police, regular citizens, and they all failed. I think Drakken used the phrase 'In less time than it takes to order a pizza.' Also when the 'Little Diablo's' incident happened they were terrorizing the whole world with plasma, and their huge feet and claws. Now tell me don't you think that _someone_ got hurt in all of that?"

Kim looked down at her lap again in dejection, "I never considered . . ."

_I cannot believe that I am doing psychiatric counseling for a nineteen-year-old hero, not to mention former nemesis_. "Kim, consider this for a minute," _I am definitely washing my mouth out after this_, "The world _needs_ you. You may have failed _this_ time, however you survived. In this world almost everyone in a position to make change seems to be out for themselves, yet _you_ aren't. You have the power to make change. Sure people have been hurt in the past, maybe even killed by the bad guys, yet you're actions have saved many more. Yesterday someone died because he believed that you needed to be exactly where you were that day to help others. He knew the risks, but he accepted them because acting on that risk meant that others would be saved."

"But-"

"No buts Kimmie," Shego interrupted covering Kim's mouth. She smirked again as another thought occurred to her. "However now it seems to me that someone has something important that she needs to do."

"What?"

Shego eased herself and Kim to their feet and looked down at the smaller woman. "Well for one, you stink and need a bath."

"Shego!"

"Hey I'm just being honest here," Shego stated, holding up her hands to emphasize her point. "And also since when are you allowed inside a kitchen unsupervised. Didn't Barken and Stoppable have like a restraining order put on you to keep you out of all kitchens or something after the Home Ec class?"

Kim opened her moth to protest, but closed it instead of trying, "You win for now Shego, but I know where you sleep," and with that she left to take her shower.

Shego watched her go and once she was out of earshot she mumbled, "Strangely enough that prospect actually scares me."


	12. Chapter 12

For disclaimer see Chapter 1.

Sorry that this took so long. Real life has been getting in the way of everything, but hopefully I will get the next few chapters out soon.

* * *

The receptionist leaped to his feet as the elevator's door opened as a gentleman is a black business suit entered the room.

"Welcome back sir," the young man greeted in the most sincere voice he could muster without cracking under his apprehension. "Mr. Hench is expecting you."

The man nodded to the receptionist in acknowledgment and walked into the adjoining office.

"Welcome back Bás!" Jack greeted the newcomer with his patented smile glued in place. "I am so glad that you made it back safely. I don't need to tell you how concer-"

"Then don't," Bás interrupted dismissively. "I am not here for a social visit. I am simply here as a courtesy to say that you will now be operating under my supervision."

Jack sat down in his office chair, his face darkening with barely hidden anger, "I believe that I must have heard wrong. It sounded as if you just said-"

"I said that you will report to me," Bás repeated. "Don't worry it will not affect your day to day operations. You will still be able to manage however you want, only now you will be running all major decisions through either myself or one of my representatives."

Jack gripped the edge of his desk until his knuckles turned white, and he scowled in utter rage at the man in front of him, "Just who do you think-"

"For your own sake I recommend that you carefully consider just how you finish that sentence," Bás warned emotionlessly. "Gemini learned first hand what happens to those who behave disrespectfully."

Jack released the desk and leaned back in shock. "Gemini is dead?"

"No, _he_ isn't dead," Bás clarified. "Though after what he witnessed happen to the man who _did_ step out of line I do not believe he will ever give me cause to do anything to him either."

Jack sagged in his seat feigning defeat and cautiously moved a hand towards the panic button beneath the desktop. "Tell me Mr. Bás, what did I ever do for my company to receive such _special_ attention?"

Bás cocked his head quizzically at the question, "Is it not obvious? You betrayed me to Global Justice, just as WEE betrayed my men by setting that bomb at the airport."

Suddenly the doors behind Bás burst open with security guards pouring into the room. Jack smiled as the six men circled Bás and pointed their plasma rifles, all supplied by Bás himself, at the man. "It seems that your company presidency is over before it began," Jack smirked.

Bás slowly turned his gaze from one man to the other and then settled on Jack, and signed in weary frustration, as a teacher dealing with a difficult pupil. "I am afraid it is time for you to learn the same lesson Gemini did."

The guards nervously adjusted their grip on their rifles as Bás carefully moved his arms away from his sides and a couple of them glanced towards Jack, silently requesting orders. Then suddenly Bás's arms shot out lightning fast ad grabbed a rifle in each hand and yanked them free of their owner's grasps. The two men yelped in surprise as Bás dropped to his knees and flipped the weapons end for end and grabbed them like handguns in each hand.

Jack could only watch in horror as Bás quickly spun his new weapons around the room, delivering headshots to each guard before they had time to react. Less than thirty seconds after the first guard burst into the room all six lay dead on the floor.

Bás casually rose from his kneeling position to his feet and tossed the two rifles aside in a bored fashion. He then took in the carnage surrounding him and walked around the bodies as he approached the front of Jack's desk and gazed down at the businessman.

"Now that we have established the chain of command, there are some things we need to discuss. First, what can you tell me about a woman named Kim Possible?"

* * *

After finishing the cleanup of Kim's most recent attempt at the culinary arts, or biological warfare, depending on who saw it, Shego decided it was time to ask Samantha about what had happened the day before. On the way to the girl's room she thought of several ways of broaching the subject but nothing seemed right, even in her ears. "So what happened, did you get lost on the way back in thee front door? Or did you get abducted, and just happen to find yourself in the middle of a GJ/WEE standoff by accident?" _Oh come on_, Shego chided herself. _The girl is suffering enough without the sarcasm_.

As she neared Samantha's door she started to hear muffled voices emanating from the room.

"I know it was no one's fault," came Samantha's voice. Even from this distance Shego could tell that the girl had been crying from the sound of the voice. "But still I can't help but feel that . . ."

"That you could have done more?" the second voice was very familiar but Shego could not place where she heard it before. It was a male voice, which bothered her enough considering that some guy was in Sam's room, but it was someone that Shego believed that she should recognize.

"Yeah that's it," Sam sniffed. "I should have been able to do more."

"It was your first mission," the voice soothed, "and you know as well as anyone that no military operation goes as planned. I know that Nick taught you that."

_That's it!_ Shego realized. The voice was Nicolas Cridon, the man who had hired her and Kim to protect Samantha. _Wait, Nick isn't the type to refer to himself in the third person. And why would he have hired us to protect her only to take her into a battle?_ Shego mused over the questions for a moment and then decided it was time for some answers.

Carefully and quietly Shego opened Samantha's bedroom door and looked through it at the couple in the room. Samantha was sitting on her bed and Nick was kneeling in front of her. She seemed to still be a total wreck just as she had that morning, with her face worn and drawn from stress, and grief, and stained from crying. The floor was littered with tissues, and she was still dressed in her pajamas. Nick was dressed in a strange unadorned maroon uniform jacket with black trousers and knee-high boots, complete with a dark brown leather belt, and a short military-style haircut. That in of itself did not faze Shego, considering all she had seen in her career, but the face that he seemed to now sport Halloween style pointed ears did peek her curiosity.

"Uh what are you doing here Nick?" Shego asked curiously.

Nick and Sam swung around to face Shego in surprise and then darted their gazes back to each other trying to decide what to do next.

"Uh I should probably go," he guessed.

"Good call."

"Talk to you later?"

"You got it," Sam confirmed. Shego then had to hold back a look of shock as Nick's body vanished into a small glowing ball that was slightly over two centimeters in diameter. As soon as the image completely faded from view the ball floated over to Samantha's left wrist and seemed to become absorbed into her skin.

"Let me guess, a hologram?" Shego asked when her voice returned.

"Yeah, Jeremy was concerned after Nick told him about the mission, so he decided to call," she explained. "Or at least what _he_ considers a call."

"Wait," Shego frowned in confusion. "Wasn't _that_ Nick?"

Samantha giggled at the older woman's confusion. "No that was Jeremy. They do look identical most of the time, at least in broadcasts like that, but Nick grew his hair out for this mission, and only Jeremy is wearing the clan uniform."

"Ok _that_ explains _everything_," Shego retorted sarcastically. "But just for fun why don't you start explaining it in a little more detail and how about throwing in what happened last night while you're at it."

Sam's face fell as Shego mentioned the night before. "Last night," she whispered distantly.

"Yeah as in less than twenty-four hours ago, and don't you dare fall apart on me gain," she added as she noticed Sam's distant gaze forming.

"I won't," Sam barked back. "It's just not an easy thing to explain."

Shego's expression softened as she noticed the pain that was slowly making its way into Samantha's face. She walked over to the bed and sat down next to the teenager and wrapped an arm around her shoulders in support. She was more than a little surprised to see Kim enter the doorway and sit down at Sam's other side imitating the silent gesture of support.

"Come on Sam," Kim urged gently, "tell us what's going on."

Sam looked from Shego to Kim and then down at her feet as she collected her thoughts. She took a deep breath, slowly let it out and then began her explanation.

"You guys remember the night that we met, how Nick talked about some people that were looking for me?"

"Yeah," Kim confirmed. "He said that you were going to be bait for them."

"Well, these guys are not your typical henchmen," she continued as she looked directly at Kim, "they set up the whole thing at the airport last night just to market some weapons to the Worldwide Evil Empire."

"It was just an arms deal?" Kim asked in disbelief. She couldn't believe that all she went through, from the death of a decent person, to the torture, was all over some gun deal. It just made their sacrifice seem so, well so pointless.

"In a way, yes," Sam confirmed. "But really it is much more than that. Nick and I are on the same side of a, I guess you could call it a Cold War. Our faction has been tying to avoid having our conflict spilling over to anyone else, while the other side has been trying to move around the treaty and is supplying arms to others to recruit them as new soldiers."

"Whoa slow down there," Shego interrupted. "I wanted answers and you're just adding more questions. First what treaty, no wait first who is having a Cold War? I think that everyone would know if two countries were in the middle of one."

"Shego let her finish," Kim chastised her.

"Thanks Kim. Shego the reason no one knows about it is very complicated." She paused for a minute to consider how best to explain the situation. "Do you remember how Jeremy had pointed ears like off of some cheap costume? Well that is actually his real ears. It was a genetic marker placed within our predecessors to help track those who were genetically modified."

"Genetically modified?" Kim asked dubiously. "You mean like Shego?"

"No more like your Monkey Fist," Sam corrected. "You see ours was on purpose rather than a random accident. All of us are directly descended from the originals, and carry the traits that allow us increased metal capacities, increased strength, dexterity, stamina, just to name a few things."

"And the ears?" Shego asked with one of her trademark smirks.

"That was to help make sure that the test subjects couldn't return home, and/or breed without the creators knowing. They added the ears byway of including a new dominate gene to everyone for the ears. It insured that everyone would be a carrier for the gene, so that all descendants would have it as well."

"How long ago was this," Kim asked curiously. "It couldn't have been too long ago, I mean genetic research at that level isn't very old. Even DNAmy hasn't been working for more that ten years."

Samantha stared down at a very interesting speck on the floor nervously while Kim waited for a reply. "I-I am not allowed to discuss that part," she stuttered. "It was longer ago than you might believe though."

"How many of you are there?" Kim pressed.

"More than you would believe," Sam muttered.

"How many more?" Shego asked. "I mean you were talking about generations earlier. Just who was creating your ancestors, and how many of you are around now?"

"I can't tell you!" Sam insisted, jerking her head up to look directly into Shego's gaze. "I wish I could I wish I could tell you everything, honest!"

Shego's eyes grew wide in surprise as she stared into Samantha's eyes. "Sam, your eyes!"

Sam dropped her gaze in shock and tried to stand up to run, but Shego held her down.

"What's wrong?" Kim asked in alarm.

"Her eyes are changing color!" Shego exclaimed.

"What?" Kim gently grabbed Samantha by the shoulders and dropped to her knees in front of the teenager to get a look at her face. Though the lighting in the room was dim, she could still make out that Sam's eyes were a lighter shade than their normal dark shade.

"It's part of the genetic changes," Sam muttered as she fought back tears. "They found that some people's eyes can change shades when they are overly angry or something, so they added a gene that would do something similar to every test subject. After all they wanted a warning if one of the subjects had a problem with them."

"So every time you get mad your eyes change color?" Shego asked. "That's got to get annoying."

"It isn't just getting mad. It takes a significant chemical balance change, and that takes a significant mood swing. Though I usually wear colored contact lenses to hide it, and I think that Nick does too."

"What color does his change to?" Shego smiled as she imagined several color combinations.

"Deep Green to Ice Blue," Sam sniffed and wiped her eyes before continuing. "I think one of his team has eyes that change from blue to red, but that may have just been a joke."  
Kim stood up and walked into the bathroom to find a tissue for Samantha as she listened to her answer Shego's question. "How large is Nick's team anyways," She called back into the bedroom.

"Forty-three, a decent size for a reinforced platoon."

"Isn't a platoon supposed to be a small group in a military?" Kim asked as she walked back in and handed Sam a Kleenex.

Sam accepted it and wiped her eyes, then blew her nose before answering. "Yeah it's three squad's worth, and in this case it also has support personnel, like me for a medic."

"You're in the Army?" Shego nearly shouted in surprise.

"I am in _an_ army," Sam sighed. "I already have a degree in medicine for our people, thought I don't have a degree to practice medicine with normal humans from a regular university. Also Nick is from a faction that requires military service from all its citizens. Mine, an allied faction that merged with his, doesn't require everyone to serve, but I volunteered."

"At seventeen?" Shego couldn't imagine a family allowing a seventeen-year-old girl to go through the level of danger that Sam was describing. And even though what she was talking about sounded like an episode of the twilight zone, Shego found herself actually believing it for some strange reason.

"Well yes. Nick needed people he could trust, and since he's known me and my sisters his whole life he knew he could trust me."

"To be bait."

"No to keep his people alive," Sam clarified. "There was no way to be sure that I would ever be found. And now that Nick has leads thanks to last night-"

"Yeah about that," Shego interrupted, "What was that all about?"

"Dr. Director has a mole in Hench Co. and he tipped us to an arms demonstration in some place in Europe. Nick thought that the other faction had given the weapons to some dealer and that the dealer was going to sell it to WEE so he grabbed as many people as he could on short notice and took us to stop the deal." Sam paused as memories started to flood back.

Shego and Kim exchanged a look as they saw Sam struggling with the memories, and despite her own struggle with what had happened Kim managed to speak first. "Sam you don't have to tell us if you don't want to."

"No," Sam shook her head to clear it, "I _need_ to tell it.

"It turned out to be a full squad of enemy soldiers. They were spaced throughout the airport and were armed to deal with us." She closed her eyes tightly as the images began to come forward unbidden. "I can still see the sky light up with blast after blast from those rifles. The shouts of the others as they tried to form up and locate the enemy snipers." She choked and waited for her stomach to settle. "The shot that hit one of the bikes . . ." She finally allowed the tears to start to fall from the building emotions. "I was so scared!" she cried.

"It's alright Sam," Kim tried to consol her.

"Kim's right Sam," Shego chimed in. She was feeling a growing feeling of anger at the people who had put Sam through this. She hated Nick for taking her there when she should have been safe with her. She hated the men shooting at Kim, and her. She hated WEE for even thinking of purchasing weapons that could cause such pain. _How dare they do this to Kim and my sist- _she stopped as the word began to form in her mind._ Sam's not really my sister, she's just a job. That's right, just a job, right?_

"Anyways," Sam started again, still suffering from the memories. "We split into two teams. Mine went to rescue the survivors, while the rest began to target the snipers. We eventually found Kim and the GJ survivors-"

"Anyone we know," Shego joked.

"They were led by someone named Yori but-"

"Yori? Wait what did she look like?" Kim remembered Yori from her adventures with Ron, and she was almost hoping that this wasn't the same woman. After all if it was, and considering Ron's ties to her school, they might- _No_, she stopped herself._ Ron wouldn't . . . he just wouldn't_.

"Well she is about my height . . . and she was dressed in a black . . . I think they call it a Gi? Or something like that," Sam knitted her brows in concentration as she tried to remember Yori's features from the brief moment that she had seen her. "And she had a light colored band in her hair, I think it might have been a pink color, but it was so dirty I wouldn't tell. Honestly I didn't see her for very long they were taking most of the wounded personnel out about that time.

"She was wounded?" Kim asked in concern.

"Uh yeah, nearly everyone was. Actually You were one of the lucky ones. Yori was one of the three worst. The other two were a member of the original GJ team, and a young blond in Yori's team. I think his name was Ron, but I I'm not sure."

Shego snapped her attention to Kim as soon as she heard Ron's name. "Kim I'm sure it's not the same-" She cut off as Kim stood up. "Kim, it may not be him." Kim turned towards the door and walked towards it as if she hadn't even heard Shego. "Kim, listen to me!"

"Wade do you have a fix on Ron's location?" Kim asked the young genius.

Wade turned from the screen for a moment to consult his computer data and then shook his head as he turned back to the camera. "Sorry Kim the best I can do is One A.M. Eastern Time."

"And where was he then?" Kim asked with more patience than she was currently feeling.

"The Washington D.C. area. It looks like he did a direct flight from Europe."

"Great," Kim groaned to herself. "You wouldn't happen to know _where_ in D.C. he's at would you?"

Wade arched an eyebrow at Kim's question. "Yeah, but Kim-"

"Great," Kim interrupted. Now I need a ride to-"

Kim was cut off as a had gripped her wrist over the Kimmunicator. "No you don't." Shego stated flatly. She then carefully released Kim's wrist and pulled the arm up so that Wade could see her face. "Thanks for the help nerd-boy," she told the young man before hitting the power button on the devise.

"_Shego_," Kim admonished the older woman as she pulled her arm free.

"Kim, Ron doesn't need your help." Shego declared, crossing her arms.

"So," Kim spat. "What business is it of yours anyways?"

Shego paused for a second as if she didn't have an answer to that question, but recovered quickly as she glared down at the smaller woman. "As long as we are working together I'm responsible for you, and that includes protecting you from yourself."

"I don't need protection," Kim retorted, as she tried to imitate Shego's stance. "Especially from some lowlife _sidekick_."

Kim didn't even see the blow coming as Shego backhanded her across the face, snapping her head to the side. The hit was hard and they were both certain that people on the other side of town must have heard the sound of the slap.

Kim slowly turned her head around to see a look of utter shock on Shego's face at what had just happened. Shego took a step back and stood there as if in a trance as Kim carefully walked around her and then bolted for her room.

Once Shego heard the door to Kim's room slam shut she felt her way onto the couch and sank into it almost without thinking. _What did I do?_


	13. Chapter 13

For Disclaimer see Chapter 1.

Sorry about the long wait, but sometimes life can be rather hectic. Anyways here's lucky 13

* * *

Adrena Lynn flopped down onto a far too pink couch in a far too pink house and watched in bored fascination as Amy hall, AKA DNAmy, worked at the room's only computer. In the far corner of the room was the reason for the other woman's labor, Lord Monty Fisk frozen as a 'living' stone statue.

Lynn did not know how the strange looking man ended up as a statue, nor did she really care. From what Amy had told her the man's name was Lord Monty Fisk, though he had paid her to change his hands and feet into more monkey-like appendages to become 'Monkey Fist, The Supreme Monkey Ruler,' whatever that meant.

Now he was trapped in stone, and Amy was trying her best to find a way to change the crazed man back into his natural form through molecular manipulation, a long, boring, and very expensive prospect, which is where Lynn came in.

Though little more than an actress not long ago Lynn had spent the past couple of years living off of her rapidly growing list of skills. Among these new skills was infiltration/burglary, moderate Martial arts skills (though she would claim advanced skills), photographic memory recall, explosives and pyrotechnics, and advanced knowledge of illusion.

_Yet despite all I've done and learned I still ended up a sidekick to a second-rate villain_, she mentally wined. _Worse yet she's a second-rate villainess with a Cuddle Buddy fetish! _Adrena couldn't help being freaked out by the vast collection of stuffed animals, the doll-like appearance of the house, and the bubbly attitude of Amy. _There's a difference between Freaky, and Freeeaky, and this woman has really gone over the deep end. I am sooo going to kill someone at Hench Co. for assigning me to this whack-job._

Adrena's pity party was cut short as someone rang the doorbell.

"OOOH visitors!" squealed Amy in childlike delight. "Adrena please be a dear and let them in for me, PLLEEAASSEE?"

"Yeah sure," Adrena grumbled as she unfolded herself from the couch and stiffly walked to the door.

She did not even bother to see who it was before opening the door, before opening it and was shocked to find herself looking at the very familiar face of her older sister.

"Nancy?" she gasped in surprise.

"Hey Adrena," Nancy smiled as she looked her sister over. "How are things with the geneticist?"

"Could be better," Adrena sighed. "Someone at Hech Co. has it in for me. What are you doing here?"

"Someone at Hench Co. has it in for me too." Nancy replied. She cautiously looked behind her, and then glanced up and down the street before turning back to Adrena. "Look I need to talk to Amy."

"Sure come in." Adrena quickly ushered her into the house and Amy almost ran over to the newcomer as soon as she saw her.

"NANCY!" she screamed in excitement. "It's been too long!"

""Uh, yes it has Amy," Nancy smiled politely as Amy enveloped her in a tight bear hug.

Amy quickly released the taller woman and smiled up at her. "And I can't thank you enough for sending me such a wonderful assistant."

Adrena couldn't even begin to cover the shock that she felt at hearing those words from Amy; however the feeling was soon replaced by an incredible since of rage as she pitted her only sister with a glare that spelled homicide for anyone with a teaspoon of brains.

Nancy smiled back nervously at Amy and somehow managed to keep her voice level as she replied to the oblivious woman. "You are very welcome Amy. However I am here on a rather urgent matter."

"What do you need?" Amy asked.

"Jack Hench came across a rather peculiar DNA sample a short time ago and he needs it analyzed to find out what the unusual sequences in it are for."

"Unusual?" Amy asked with a disturbing gleam in her eyes.

"Yes quite unusual," Nancy replied. She walked over to Amy's desk and carefully laid her soft-sided briefcase on top of it. As she entered the code to open it she explained further. "Yesterday Mr. Hench purchased a blood sample from a source in Eastern Europe that supposedly came from a Genetically modified source."

"Amy did you lose one of your pets?" Adrena smirked.

"Certainly not," Amy snorted at the very idea that she would be so careless with one of her 'babies.'

"It wasn't one of Amy's," Nancy interrupted.

Nancy carefully removed a small test tube from her briefcase and handed it over to Amy. The heavyset woman eagerly held the container up to the light and peared into it as if she could see the answer to its origin with her eyes.

After a moment of silence, which Adrena rather enjoyed, Amy giggled to herself and sprinted over to her computer desk. The blonde sisters followed more slowly as the geneticist began preparing a sample of the blood for analysis.

"You know the worst part of this?" Adrena whispered to her sister.

"What?"

"She is going to start humming again."

Nancy gave her sister a quizzical look at the answer, and Adrena shook her head at her confusion. "Whenever she's working she's happy. Whenever she's happy she hums her current favorite song, and she won't stop repeating it until she's done."

"Well what's wrong with that?"

Adrena grimaced as Amy began to loudly hum an _Oh Boyz_ song.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

* * *

"Kim Possible! It is so good to see you again!"

Kim looked up from her papers as two young men approached her table in the Student Center's cafeteria. She did not know the second one. He was dressed in the uniform of a ROTC cadet, and judging from his demeanor he appeared to be a freshman. The other one, the one who had called her name was very familiar, and her expression blossomed into a smile as she recognized him, despite the pain from her wounds.

"Hirotaka!" she called out as she carefully stood up to embrace him.

"It is good to see you again," the young ninja replied as they separated. "Allow me to introduce to you an old friend that I have just recently met again." He stood aside and motioned to his companion. "This is Fukushima, he attended Yamanouchi the same time I did. We lost touch with each other several years ago when circumstances required his absence form the school; fortunately we now have the honor to serve together again."

"It is an honor to meet you, Kim Possible," Fukushima grinned as he took her hand in a firm handshake.

Kim kept a friendly expression on her face as she asked them to sit, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was going on. She recalled Fukushima's name from her senior year when Ron began to fill her in on his time at Yamanouchi and how he had to save both the Lotus Blade and Yori from Monkey Fist. According to Ron Fukushima had betrayed the school to the super-villain and had been banished for his crimes. Also she did not know how he, a Japanese citizen, could be in a United States Officer training program designed for US citizens. _Something else is going on here,_ she concluded.

They all sat down and Fukushima listened as Kim and Hirotaka talked about their time together at Middleton high. After spending some time laughing at one embarrassing story after another they left the cafeteria and took a walk across campus.

After several minutes Hirotaka led the trio in between two buildings where they could have some privacy. Once he and Fukushima confirmed that no one could hear them his expression darkened and he turned back to Kim.

"Kim Possible, I fear that you may be in grave danger," he warned her.

Kim cracked a smile, and then winced at how much it hurt with her bruised face. "Did the cuts and bruises give it away?" she teased.

"We are serious," Fukushima chimed in. "We heard about what happened. These people who were helping Gemini are _not_ to be underestimated."

"I think I found that out on my own," Kim frowned as she remembered the fight from that night.

Hirotaka shook his head at Kim's disregard for their warnings and tried to expain the situation more clearly. "Our master taught us that these people are very dangerous, more so than those who invaded our planet."

Kim focused her attention on the young man as she began to take him seriously. "How so?"

"According to the legends he told us these people began to appear around the world a long time ago, almost simultaneously. They were said to be beings that resembled Man, but were possessing strength, speed, and cunning that were beyond the capabilities of any normal human."

Fukushima nodded as he recalled the stories, and then he continued, "It was said that these creatures were aggressive, and manipulative. Several stories told of battles between them, and many others were about cases where they destroyed great numbers of men, women, even children. Sensei said that some believe that these creatures were the original Elves and Demons from the old tales. He did not believe that, but he confessed that he did believe that these people were real."

Hirotaka waited until Fukushima paused, and then he spoke up. "The last story about these beings was over a century ago, it was said that a small vehicle crashed in South America. Several of our graduates went to investigate, but only two returned. The survivors were horribly wounded from the encounter, and told of a great clash between the beings. One in which none of the combatants survived.

"Another story was started last year of a supposed encounter in Montana, at a ranch where two groups fought to the death, but our man was unable to find out anything conclusive from the only witness."

"Wait," Kim interrupted as an unpleasant idea crept into her mind. "Do you know the name of the ranch?"

"I believe it was called the 'Lazy C'," Fukushima replied. "Why?"

Kim's eyes widened as that same crazy thought began to sink in. "Did the rancher call himself Slim?"

"Yes he did."

Kim shook her head to clear it. _No, these stories can't be true!_ She mentally screamed. _They make about as much sense as Dad's _Captain Constellation_ shows._ Then another voice countered, _But what about Sam? Slim, Nana, and Joss meet this strange girl just after these 'creatures' fight at the ranch. And their descriptions do match her and Nick._

"I need time to think about this," she finally replied. _I'm not quite ready to believe these ghost stories_, she mentally added. _And I've seen some real ghost stories come alive in my time_.

"Of course," Hirotaka answered. "Would you like us to walk you to your car?"

"Please, and thank you."

* * *

The walk back to the car was fairly quiet. The trio spoke little, except for Fukushima who finally explained why he was at the university.

Shortly after his fight with Ron he had been banished from Japan by Sensei. He made his way to America to get his revenge against Ron, and had even received American citizenship to remain in the country long enough to find him. However after the months turned to years he lost his zeal for the plan and reestablished contact with his old master. Now he was working with the old school again, only at a distance until he earned back his honor, so that he would be able to return home.

"I hope that everything works out for you," Kim said as they stopped at her car.

"Thank you Kim Possible," Fukushima replied gratefully.

"Just Kim, please." Kim blushed at the formality as she pulled her keys out of her purse and remotely unlocked it. As she stepped toward the car door Hirotaka moved in front of it.

"Please allow me."

"Thank you," Kim blushed again.

Hirotaka grinned at Kim's reaction and pulled open the door to the car, only to find himself flying across the parking garage as the entire vehicle exploded.

* * *

"Do you think Mr. Barkin will be mad that we missed half the day?" Jim asked Tim as they walked across the parking lot of the mostly rebuilt Middleton High School.

"I think that he'll just be mad that we showed up at all today," Tim laughed.

Jim also began laughing as he remembered the look on Mr. Barkin's face last week when the boys managed to turn the Home Ec. class into a Chemistry experiment and blew apart the newly repaired room.

The two boys paused at the flag Pole in front of the building and stared at the front door. Jim took a half step forward and then stepped back and looked at his brother.

"You first?" he asked.

"Na, you first."

"How about we do it together,"

Tim thought for a second and shrugged, "Sure, on three?"

Jim nodded solemnly and the tweebs started the count together. "ONE, TWO, THR-"

The count stopped as the boys were thrown to the ground with a shockwave coming from a blast inside the building.

* * *

Samantha tried to hold back a grin as she watched Shego pace back and forth in the hospital waiting room. Even though she was nervous and concerned about Kim's condition, the thought of the big tough Shego on the verge of a nervous breakdown was so ridiculous that she couldn't help but feel some amusement at it. Finally she decided that she would have to step in or break down and start laughing.

"Sharon," she called out using Shego's alias. "You're making the doctors nervous. Come on, sit down," she added while scooting over to make room on the small couch.

Shego turned, glaring at the small teenager. "Why should I care if they're nervous," she spat.

"Uh," Sam pretended to think. "Because the Docs are probably not going to do their job as well if they're worried about you killing 'em."

Shego sighed heavily. "Your right," she muttered. She stomped over to Sam and fell down onto the couch next to her. She then buried her head in her hands, propping her elbows on her knees. "It's just one thing after another," she moaned.

"It feels that way sometimes doesn't it," Sam agreed, wrapping an arm around the older woman for support.

"You know," Shego spoke up after a few minutes. "Kim's nerdy sidekick-"

"Wade."

"Whatever. He told me that whoever did this was trying to make an example of Kim."

Samantha jerked her head up at Shego's statement, and stared at her. "What?"

Shego leaned back heavily and closed her eyes as she remembered her conversation with Wade.

"He said that the same group hit the high school that Kim's brothers go to. Luckily everyone was in the Gym for a rally or something and the bomb was set at the other side of the building, so no one was killed.

"Also the security guards at the Middleton Space Center, and the Middleton Hospital caught bombers trying to force their way in. The one at the Space Center was shot and killed, but the one at the Hospital is survived six gunshot wounds and is in a comma."

"Do the police know who they worked for," Sam asked hesitantly.

"All they know is the jackasses were trained by Hench Co," Shego answered angrily. "So it could have been anyone."

"Or Gemini," Sam thought out loud.

"_Especially_ Gemini," Shego affirmed.

"Is Kim's family alright?"

"Yeah," Shego nodded.

"Good," Sam sighed as she leaned against Shego, and laid her head on her shoulder.

"According to nerdlinger-"

"Wade."

"I really don't care. According to him Kim's Dad has been putting together some kind of live-on-the-Moon project, which a lot of people have been interested in ever since Wormonga and her boyfriend wrecked the whole planet. Now he figures that it's a great time to move up there with the family, and Stoppable's folks are going along, just in case."

"It's my fault," Sam whispered.

"What?" Shego sat up straight and held Sam at arms length to look her straight in the eyes. "Now listen to me carefully," she snapped. "You had nothing to do with what happened to Kim. Understand?"  
"But?"

"No! Listen, you had _nothing_ to do with it. That girl has been pushing around a lot of people for a long time. It was a miracle that nothing serious has happened to her until now. This was between some psycho and Kim, you were _not_ the cause."

Sam dropped her gaze down as she thought about what Shego said. Then she slowly raised her head back up and asked, "If the psycho was trying to make an example of Kim, then who was he making it to?"

"I don't know," Shego admitted. "But when I find him, I'll be giving him a message of my own.


	14. Chapter 14

For disclaimer see Chapter 1

* * *

"Would you _please_ sing another song? _Anything_ else?" Nancy begged as DNAmy began singing the same _Oh Boyz_ song for what seemed like the thousandth time.

"Oh," Amy said as she seemed to take notice of the two exhausted blondes for the first time. Nancy was reclining on an easy chair, with her pink dress jacket lying across the back of it, while Adrena Lynn was stretched across the sofa with a pillow pulled tightly over her head.

"Don't tell me she forgot we were still here again?" Adrena muttered from under the pillow.

"Yup, she did."

Amy giggled at the women's comments and shook her head at some unsaid joke.

"I know I'm going to regret asking this," Nancy said to the ceiling.

"Just ask her," Adrena encouraged.

"Amy," Nancy began again, "what are you laughing at?"

"It's nothing," Amy mused. "It's just that you two act just like sisters."

"Oh!" Adrena screamed in frustration as she pulled back the pillow and slammed it back into her face to hide from her boss's stupidity. "For the love of-"

"Adrena shut up," Nancy ordered. "Amy of course we act like sisters. We're twins!"

* * *

Ron groaned as began to recall vague scenes and images. The first was of him and Yori going out glass doors towards some vehicles and people. Then he saw a man dressed in weird black body armor firing art the same people as they dove for cover. Next he saw himself flying to the ground as he took a heavy hit from the same man. As the last vision blurred Ron saw Yori fighting over him with the man. She was badly hurt, with her suit badly torn and smoldering, and everywhere that her skin was exposed it was burned.

Ron shot upright in bed, sweating at the thought of Yori, only to flinch in the light of his hospital room.

"Welcome back Stoppable," laughed Jackson.

"Jackson?" Ron asked.

"Wow, and first time to," Feldman commented in mock shock from the rooms doorway. He walked in with two cups of coffee and handed one to Jackson.

"So much for brain injury," Jackson sighed in disappointment.

"Wait," Feldman held up a hand, "We don't know if he remembers me yet."

"Thanks Feldman," Ron mumbled.

"_Now_ we can write off brain damage," Jackson announced.

"Well after his three day nap I just want to be sure." Feldman turned back to Ron and fixed him with a serious stare. "Ronald Stoppable, before we left on our vacation to Europe you promised to pay us back for that three hundred dollar loan, but failed to do so because of that bump on your head. Now what is your PIN number for the account that you were going to pay us from."

"Dude I'm not that far gone," Ron groaned as he lay back down. He shot back up in bed in a panic as he remembered what Feldman said, "_THREE DAYS!_"

"Yup," Jackson grinned as he took a sip.

"That was the best comma I've ever seen," Feldman added.

"I've seen better."

"Woah, back up," Ron held up his hands in the time-out gesture for emphases. "You guys are saying that I've been out for three _days_?"

"Duh," Feldman snorted.

"Ya gotta love the analytical insight this boys' got," Jackson grinned. "With little or no hints he is able to assemble the entire story on his own."

"He should really be an officer," Feldman agreed with a solemn nod.

"I'll take that under advisement gentlemen," Doctor Director interjected from the doorway.

Both men snapped to attention as the woman entered the room. She went straight to Ron's bedside and after looking the injured blonde up and down she turned back to the two jokers.

"At ease gentlemen. The last thing any of needs is for the only two well members of Team Y to pull something in a hospital." After waiting for the two men to relax she turned her attention back to Ron.

"It's good to see that you're finally getting better Ron," she smiled.

"Thanks Doc- I mean Ma'am," Ron stammered as he tried to use the unfamiliar formal title.

"'Doctor Director' is just fine Ron," Betty assured him. "I just came by to see that you were alright. The last time I visited you the prognosis was not very good."

"Thanks Ma'am," Ron leaned back in the bed to relax, but stopped short as he began to remember the last part of his nightmare. "Doctor Director?"

"Yes Ron?"

"How is Yori doing?" Ron asked. Feldman and Jackson shared a worried look at the question, and Betty seemed to hesitate before answering.

She cleared her throat and glanced around with her one good eye before answering. "Yori is taking a little more time to recover Ron, but don't wor-"

"It's bad isn't it?" Ron blurted out in a panic. "I know it's bad! Tell me it's-"

"Stoppable shut up and let her talk!" Jackson interrupted.

"Seriously," Feldman added.

"Thank you gentlemen. Now Ron, Yori was hurt worse than you three-"

"I knew it!" Ron wailed.

"However," Betty continued, holding up her hand to quiet Ron. "She is recovering much faster than the doctors believed possible."  
"Can I see her?" Ron asked hopefully.

"Later, after you have had more time to heal. After all you just woke up from a three day comma." She paused and turned to Jackson and Feldman. "In the meantime, I was informed by the good doctors that Ron should be given plenty of time alone to rest, as ridiculous as that sounds for a man who just woke up from three full days of sleep."

"See you later Stoppable!" Feldman waved as Betty ushered him and Feldman out of the room.

"We'll check in on you later," Jackson added.

"I can hardly wait," Ron moaned as his head hit the pillow.

* * *

"Miss Gorman? Miss Kim?" A young doctor asked the sleeping forms of Shego and Samantha.

Sam opened her eyes at the mention of their alias' and rubbed Shego's shoulder to wake her up. "Sharon," she called softly. "The doctor's back."

"Wa, huh?" Shego asked groggily.

"The doctor's back," Sam explained again.

"Oh," Shego muttered as her mind came back into focus.

"Sorry to wake you," the doctor apologized. "But Miss Possible just came out of surgery. She'll make a full recovery, but she won't be able to see anyone for a few more hours."

"How bad is it?" Sam asked.

"Not bad at all," the doctor answered. "She took a few pieces of debris in her right side, though most passed right through her arm. Most of the injuries are superficial, and will heal quickly."

"Most?" Shego echoed suspiciously.

"There was a larger piece of debris that hit her leg and broke it just above the knee, and another that cracked a couple of ribs. Aside from wearing a cast, stitches and a few bandages, she will be fine. In fact," the doctor smiled, "she should be able to go home tomorrow."

"Do you know about the two men who were with her?" Sam asked nervously.

"The doctor's expression darkened at their mention. "The man who was closest to the door is still in surgery now. From what I've been told he lost his entire right arm in the blast, and has suffered severe burns and other injuries across the rest of his body.

"The other man was hit in the head and has minor burns and cuts across his body. It's fortunate for him that the other two shielded him from the worst of it, though his head injury is still giving some room for worry. Still no one can be sure how bad the injury is until he wakes up."

Sam leaned forward on the couch and buried her head in her hands as she fought to keep her emotions in check. Shego began to grind her teeth as she noticed the younger woman relapsing back into her guilt complex again, but decided to get rid of the doctor before dealing with the teenager.

"Thanks Doc for filling us in."

"Not a problem Miss Gorman. We'll let you know when Miss Possible wakes up." With that said the young man turned and walked away.

Once the young doctor was gone Shego wrapped an arm around Sam and pulled her close again. _When did I start caring about these two?_ She asked herself again.

"It's ok," she soothed Sam again. "The Doc said that Kim's fine, and that the other two are going to make it too." Sam began to shake as her emotions started to break through. "It's going to be fine. . ."

* * *

Jack Hench grumbled under his breath as he made his way up the stairs to what had once been his own office. Until a mere few days ago he had been the undisputed head of Hench Co. the world's only supplier of 'Henchmen,' and lead supplier of goods and materiel to super villains worldwide. Now he secretly answered to an upstart, a new player in the underground world of arms dealing. The mystery man known only as 'Bás;' which he recently learned was supposedly the Gaelic word for 'death'.

Jack could have easily taken the elevator up to the office, but he preferred the stairs. The reason that he normally gave people for using the stairs was that he needed the exercise, and since working in an office kept him sitting for most of the day he needed all the exercise he could get. However the real reason was that walking up to the office gave him more time alone with his thoughts, something that he valued more and more over the past few days.

As he passed the ninth floor his thoughts turned to the last discussion at his old office. Bás had just learned about Kim Possible's family and had ordered Jack to kill them as an example to anyone who would oppose him. Jack had been appalled at the order, but knowing that arguing would be beyond foolish, he had agreed to handle it. However he had quietly arranged for the greenest Henchmen trainees to be assigned the assassinations, and just as he had hoped they had botched all the assignments.

Two of the attempts had been close, and Kim had nearly died, but at least they had all survived. Jack would not have lost any sleep if Kim had actually died, in fact he had been hoping for her to leave the Hero business for years now, but he had no desire for Bás to succeed at anything. If keeping Kim Possible alive annoyed him, then Jack would do it for as long as he could.

When Jack reached the floor to his old office he paused to collect himself and to straighten out his suit. The last thing he needed was for 'him' to see anything that might show that the last few days were getting to him. After satisfying himself with his appearance he stepped though the stairwell door and into the outer office. The receptionist greeted him with a forced smile over an otherwise nervous face and directed him into the office.

Once the door to the office closed and he was alone Jack realized Bás was absent. In his chair sat a striking young woman in her early twenties, dressed in a black business suit, and wearing her long wavy dark hair loosely so that it flowed over her shoulders. Jack was only brought out of his shock by the cold had look coming from her eyes. One look into them told him that this woman was just as deadly as Bás had ever been.

"Is there something I can do for you Mr. Hench?" the woman asked.

Jack straightened his posture and cleared his throat. "Ah, yes. I was looking for Mr. Bás."

"_Mr_. Bás," she repeated. "For now on Mr. Hench, as far as you are concerned I am Bás. My superior will still be in overall command, but I will be dealing with you directly from now on. Do you understand?"

"Yes Ma'am."

"Good." The new Bás leaned forward onto the desk, propping herself on her elbows as she glared directly into Jack's eyes. "Now about those failed assassinations you were supposed to have handled . . ."

* * *

_Yori ducked as a palm strike flew by where her head had been. It seemed like the man was just playing with her. They would fight for a while and when Yori went down he would move in to kill one of her people, then she would fight back and they would spar for a while until she collapsed and the cycle would continue._

_She leaped back up and grabbed the man around the neck with her left arm, ignoring the pain from touching his personal energy shield, and slipped her body to his left and brought her left heal down across his calf to knock him down. As he fell to his knee she moved behind and tightened her hold on his neck to chock him, even as her skin started to burn from the contact with the shield. The man chuckled as Yori grabbed her left wrist with her other hand in an attempt to squeeze harder, but still failed to pierce the invisible barrier around her opponent. _

_Finally he swung his right elbow back and caught her in the gut. She barely bit back a scream as energy field around his elbow made contact with her abdomen, burning through her clothing and into her skin. _

_Releasing him out of pain Yori stumbled back and grasped at her wound with her left hand as her opponent gracefully stood up and turned back to face her. He seemed to be laughing at her through his polarized faceplate as she tried to regain a fighting stance, and didn't even bother to prepare himself as she charged back towards him. _

_Again and again she charged him, hitting him with palm strikes, hammer blows, kicks of all kinds, yet none seemed to even faze the man. Finally Yori fell to one knee, and flinched as the burned skin contacted the concrete. She could smell her own blood and burned flesh, and hear the sizzling sound of blood burning off of the opponent's energy shield. As she tried to catch her breath she looked around her and saw her allies lying all around her in a kind of ring, all of them either unconscious or dead, though she refused to accept that it could be the latter. _

_She felt around her body for anything that might be useful, but found that she had used everything already. Her Wakizashi was lying in two pieces, on either side of the terminal entrance, all four of her Shuriken were used up and out of reach, the fans were roasted, the katar that Jackson loaned her was broken between the two blades, and she couldn't even see the Lotus Blade._

It cannot end like this! _She thought. Yori glanced at the faces of her people and her gaze settled on Ron's still form._ If I die so will he. _She was pulled out of her thoughts as the man began laughing at her._

"_Although I am enjoying this little workout I am afraid I am running out of time for this little game."_

_Yori screamed in anger and launched herself at the man. Every muscle in her body protested, and her chest ached as air was forced in and out. She closed in on her nemesis and pulled back her right arm in preparation for a strike to his throat. Then as she swung her arm forward, his body seemed to become a blur of motion as he moved out of the way of the attack. Yori grunted in pain as she felt a blow impact her on the back of the head, then vision exploded into blackness and pinpricks of light as her head rebounded off the pavement._

_Through the blackness she could faintly hear Ron scream her name, and then nothing at all._

"_RON!_" Yori screamed as she shot up in bed. She immediately doubled over and put a hand to her chest as it protested her heaving breathing.

"AHHH!" came a male cry across the room, followed by the sounds of a chair sliding across the floor and a large crash.

In her panic Yori's immediate instinct was to leap up and attack whoever was there, but between the pain, nauseous stomach, and dizziness she was feeling she settled for less honorable threats.

"Whose there?" she demanded into the dark.

"Calm down Ma'am," came Jackson's voice followed by the sounds of someone moving a chair and turning on the lights.

Yori squeezed her eyes shut, and covered her face with her right hand against the offensive light, but pulled it back as she realized that both it and most of her face were covered by bandages. As she inspected herself she found that most of her body was similarly covered by the white cloths, and some even featured red spots where she had bled through them. She also noticed that she had sweated out both her hospital gown and the sheets.

"It's not as bad as it seems, Ma'am," Jackson interrupted her thoughts as he approached her side. "Trust me, considering what we faced there you came out fairly well."

Yori looked up at him and visually inspected him, looking for any injuries or problems. After deciding that he was alright she asked the question that she feared. "And how's Ro-Stoppable, and Feldman?"

"Their fine," Jackson assured her. "Stoppable woke up early this morning, and Feldman and I made it out of there with only a few cuts and bruises. As for the other's that's another matter."

Yori dropped her head in defeat at the mention of those she was ordered to save. "How bad was it?"

"Five survived," Jackson sighed. He retrieved his chair and sat down next to her bed. After sitting down he took a moment to compose himself before he continued. "All three members of Team Impossible survived. Another man, I think his name is Flagg, also lived, but he's still under observation. I am not sure who the last person is; Doctor Director didn't really talk much about him, or her for all I know. All is that person is also in the hospital."

"Is Doctor Director still here?" Yori asked.

"No Ma'am, she left shortly after Stoppable woke up." Jackson took a deep breath and looked Yori in the eyes. "Ma'am things have changed."

"What do you mean?" Yori asked suspiciously.

"I mean things have really changed," Jackson emphasized. He looked around the room as if searching for some inspiration for what he had to say, but instead he returned his gave back to her and continued. "Ma'am, you just recovered from a three day comma."

Yori's eyes widened at the revelation but she didn't say anything as Jackson continued.

"Two days ago Feldman, me, and all the other teams were brought in for a briefing. The General told us that our unit was being put directly under Doctor Director and her new organization. It's some kind of UN department of international safety. From what he said the new group will have all of the responsibilities, and resources as Global Justice did. Officially its name is Department 425, Department of International Policing Tactics and Research. She said that the name might change back as the political climate shifts."

Yori leaned back in her bed and soaked in what she was hearing. First, she had been in a comma. That frightened her, as it would for anyone whose entire life depended on being in command of their circumstances. Second, she had failed. Most of the people that had depended on her had perished. Even though she had saved several, most were dead, and she was responsible.

Third, and the greatest failure to her, was Ron. He had been in a comma because of her. She had failed him in almost every way. As his superior it was her duty to keep an emotional distance, which had failed at horribly. Over the past several days she had finally accepted, privately, that she was still deeply in love with him. Then there was the mission where she had failed to properly protect him. She had allowed him to become injured, and almost killed at the hands of a man who had savagely attacked the people she was charged to protect.

Forth, there was the change in her position. Sensei had charged her with aiding an international research program. Now she was being tasked with using her skills, Yamanouchi skills, to assist a clandestine organization in rescuing fugitives from countries, and answering to a woman who was wanted by almost every nation on earth. She did not know if what she was doing was what Sensei wanted, and if it wasn't she would have to leave and return to Yamanouchi.

"Oh," Jackson spoke up. "Doctor Director did leave a message for you in case you woke up."

Yori opened her eyes and looked over at Jackson, "What is it?"

"She told me to tell you that your Master was going to be arriving tomorrow."

Yori relaxed slightly at the news and smiled softly. "Thank you Jackson," she said quietly. No matter the news he would bring tomorrow she was very glad that she would see Sensei again.


	15. Chapter 15

For disclaimer see Chapter 1

* * *

Kim lay in bed and stared at the ceiling, just as she had for the past two days. The hospital had discharged her after one night since nothing was wrong with her, however they did give her the contact information for a professional councilor due to the circumstances surrounding her injuries. Since her return home she had remained in bed, eating rarely, and only getting up to use the restroom once or twice a day. She did not speak at all, though Shego remained close despite Kim's silence.

Kim just spent her time reliving the past two weeks again and again in her mind. It had started so innocently. First she was a happy college student living with friends and accepting the occasional mission-

Kim paused as she thought the first part over again. _Living with friends?_ Since when was _Shego_ a friend? As a matter of fact, since when was Samantha a friend? Sure she was a fun person to hang around with, and she was certainly a wonderful kid, but friend? _She's just an assignment,_ Kim declared to herself. _You should never be too close to an assignment,_ she reminded herself. She caught herself with that last reminder, and then groaned out loud as she saw Shego saying those words shortly after the assignment began.

Shego and Kim had quietly argued several times during the first few days about Samantha, especially when Shego began to notice how close they were getting to the young woman. Yet somehow all three of them had gotten close rather quickly after the first week, and then this last week came along.

First it was the disaster on that last European mission. From the deaths of the pilot and all those other people, the revelation that Samantha was some kind of Army Medic, not to mention getting caught and almost violated by the henchmen, it just seemed too much to handle. There was defiantly something wrong with that mission. Until then no one that Kim worked with was ever really hurt. Sure there was times when someone would be hit, or kicked, and Ron and she had been caught many times. Yet no one had ever been permanently hurt before.

Then there was the car bombing. Hirotaka had nearly been killed in the blast. As far as Kim knew he might actually be dead, along with Fukushima. She did not know either one of them well, after all she had only met Fukushima that day, and Hirotaka only attended Middleton High for one week. Still they were hurt because of her. If she had opened that car door she would have been lucky to have only lost an arm.

Now Kim was back in her room, lying on her bed with injuries that she received from stupid mistakes. Not only that but she knew that more good people had been hurt because of her mistakes. She silently berated herself for insisting that the pilot fly over the burning airfield after he had insisted that it was a bad idea. She relived the moment that Hirotaka stepped forward to open the car door, only to fly backward as the whole vehicle erupted into a ball of fire.

Five days, and three people were hurt because of her. If only-

Her mental lamentations were cut short as she heard muffled voices arguing on the far side of the house. Kim listened carefully but found it almost impossible to make out what they were saying. Slowly and cautiously she lifted herself out of her bed, grabbed her crutches, and as stealthily as she could, made her way out of her room. As she drew closer to the living room she began to hear Shego's voice more clearly as she argued with a very familiar old man.

"Look I wouldn't care if you were Kimmie's Grampa, she's not seeing _anyone_, got it?"

Kim forced a small smile while watching the elderly old man stand patiently throughout Shego's rant.

"It's alright Shego," she interrupted as she carefully moved into the room and straight to the short bearded man. She bowed her head respectfully before him and smiled broadly. "It's wonderful to see you again Sensei."

"As it is to see you Kim Possible," the old Ninja Master replied.

"You know this relic?" Shego asked in surprise.

"As I said," Sensei retorted.

"Please come in," Kim invited, before the older woman could respond. Shego merely growled at the smug little man as he entered the room and sat down in one of the available chairs. Kim motioned to Shego to follow and the two ladies sat in the couch facing Sensei.

"So. . . how do you two know each other?" Shego asked after an awkward silence.

"Ron Stoppable and Kim Possible have aided my people on several occasions in confronting great dangers."

"So you're here to beg her for another favor?"

"Shego!" Kim exclaimed in shock at the older woman's rudeness.

Shego looked back at the small woman with a look of innocence, "What? It's a legitimate question."

Sensei smiled at the exchange. "Actually I came to this country to visit several of my graduates. However when I learned that you were also injured I decided that a small delay in my plans was in order."

"Graduates?" Shego repeated in puzzlement.

"From my school," Sensei clarified.

"Sensei is the Headmaster," Kim added quickly. "The two guys that were with me at the car were from his school."

Shego arched an eyebrow at the small redheaded girl showing that she wasn't convinced of the story, but decided to drop the matter for the moment.

Kim took the short reprieve to ask a few questions which had been bothering her for a while. "Sensei, how are Hirotaka, and Fukushima doing?"

"They are recovering well," he assured her. "Hirotaka is going to be transferred back to Japan for further treatment, but he is expected to do well under the continued observation."

"And the other guy," Shego asked offhandedly. Kim turned a surprised gaze to the older woman at the unexpected query. Shego had never shown compassion or even interest in strangers as far as Kim knew, and she never knew of the woman caring about one of her friends before.

"He will be released from the hospital later today," Sensei smiled. "His injuries were merely superficial, like those of young Kim Possible."

"If you consider a broken leg, and shrapnel in your side to be superficial," Shego muttered.

Kim sighed with relief at the news. Shego softly smiled subconsciously as she saw layers of fatigue and pain disappearing from the younger woman's face.

Sensei noticed the women relaxing and was about to change the topic when Kim remembered the other thing she had been wanting to ask since seeing him.

"Master Sensei," she asked carefully. "Before the explosion Hirotaka mentioned several stories to me, ones that he said you had told the students, and I was wondering if they were true."

"What were the stories about," he asked curiously.

"They were about these people who have been attacking Global Justice. Or at least who he _thinks_ they are," Kim corrected herself. "He said that they were different than most people."

"Different how?" Shego asked.

"Well," Kim rubbed the back of her head as she mentally sorted out the stories. "He said that they were an old people, that they were stronger and faster than normal people. He said they were evil."

"I think I remember the stories you are referring to," Sensei interrupted.

"They sound like campfire ghost stories," Shego added.

"In a sense that is what they are," Sensei assured the older woman. 'Back during the war, my commander told us those tales between battles. We had very little time for any relaxation, but we always made it a point to try to do something to relax when we had any lulls in combat. He told us many stories about a phantom people that had existed for many generations, and that were far stronger, faster, and smarter than any normal human."

"So they're not true?" Kim asked.

"I have seen many strange and unusual things in my life," Sensei answered. "And nothing I have ever seen has disproved the stories."

"So you do believe them?" Shego asked.

"As I said I have seen nothing to _disprove_ them." Sensei repeated. "Nor have I seen anything to fully support them."

"Gotta love these mystical masters and their strait answers," Shego muttered.

"Shego be nice," Kim chastised her.

"I do not believe that there is anything to fear from those tales," Sensei assured the two women. "You have both faced far worse than anything mentioned in the old tales by yourselves, so together you have nothing to fear."

The old master stood up slowly and bowed to his hostesses. "I have enjoyed by visit, but I fear that I must leave to visit the rest of my graduates."

Kim and Shego both stood but only the former chose to return the old man's courtesy. "Please come by again Sensei."

"Thank you for your gracious invitation," he answered. "I hope that-" He was interrupted by the front door opening and closing.

"Shego!" Samantha called as she closed the door. "I'm back-" she paused when she turned around to see three sets of eyes on her. "Uh," she smiled sheepishly, "I guess you already noticed."

"Yeah I did," Shego smirked, while Kim covered her mouth to hide her amusement at Sam's uneasiness.

Sam quickly recovered and walked over to Sensei. "How do you do Sir, I'm Samantha, Sharon's sister."

"Ya know," Shego mused aloud. "It really doesn't help to use my cover name _after_ you shout my real name across the house."

Sam opened her mouth to argue but stopped when she saw that Sensei was staring at her closely.

"Is something wrong?" she asked cautiously.

"No," Sensei answered curtly. He snapped around to address Kim again. "As I was saying, I must leave now."

"Of course," Kim answered politely. She sneaked a glance at Shego to see if the other woman had seen the look Sensei have given Sam, however Shego was wearing her patented annoyed expression, so knowing which part of the old man's visit she was reacting to was next to impossible even for her.

After a few more polite words between Kim and the elderly man he finally left, and made his way to a waiting car by the sidewalk. Once the car had pulled away from the house Kim closed the front door and went to the kitchen where Samantha was laying out deli sandwich meals that she had picked up on her way home.

* * *

"Have you found _anything_ yet?" whined Adrena Lynn. After what seemed like years of waiting for DNAmy to analyse the blood sample her sister Nancy had brought Lynn was ready to kill herself from sheer boredom. Then there was Amy's singing. For two full days Amy sang the same chorus from the same _Oh Boyz_ song. To make matters worse the Chorus was just two words being repeated, '_oh boy, oh boy oh boy_.'

The only good thing that had happened was when Nancy taught Amy a Britina song, so for the last day they were able to hear something new, over, and over, and over again.

So maybe there really wasn't a real upside to anything after all, but at least Amy was claiming that she was close to being done, so it was at least almost over.

"Oh yes," Amy giggled without looking up from her computer screen. "This is _very_ interesting."

Nancy looked up from her work laptop with a very worn-out expression and barely kept her tired sarcasm in check. "Care to tell us about it?"

Amy popped her head up at the question and glanced around the room as if finally realizing that she had an audience. Judging from her behavior both sisters would have willing put down bets that she really had forgotten that they were in the room.

"Oh yes, of course," she finally replied to cover her embarrassment. "It looks like the work of a real genius."

"What does?" Lynn probed.

"Huh?"

"What looks like the work of a genius?" Nancy clarified for the scatterbrained scientist.

"Why the DNA sequences of course," Amy answered as if it were obvious.

"Can you elaborate?" Nancy asked, while putting her laptop down so that she could move over to Amy's computer for a look at the results. After days of waiting on Amy to find something she was almost ready to strangle the obese woman for being so cagy with her answers.

"Well it seems that whoever wrote this code completely redesigned the human genome as we know it," Amy tried to elaborate. She pulled up a three-dimensional model of a portion of a DNA stand and began pointing to sequences that were highlighted in different colors. "Here we have codes that would cause the muscle density to be increased, here we have increased bone density-" she paused as she moved the model around to point to another angle. "Ah, and here we have a new sequence for the ear lobe appearance."

"The what?" Lynn called while finally taking an interest.

"The ear lobes _Sweety_!" Amy replied "It seems that they changed the shape of the earlobes, the thickness of the person's hair follicles, and even increased body hair production on him."

"Ewww," Lynn shuddered as she stepped closer to her sister.

"You said that this person was produced?" Nancy asked.

"Oh course he was," Amy giggled. "Even with careful breeding there is no possible way that he could have been created through normal selective breeding processes. He would have had to be created through the production of an artificially created, or manipulated genome." Amy paused for a moment as she considered how it could have happened.

"I'm guessing that whoever did this injected the new genome into a fertilized egg, or removed the preexisting genes and replaced them with this. If this person was one of many test subjects, they may have tried both."

"I need to call Jack," Nancy thought aloud. "He needs to know."

Amy began to giggle to herself again, as an interesting thought crossed her mind.

"What is it _now_ Amy?" Lynn asked.

"I was just thinking how _cute_ they must look," Amy sighed. "I mean with fuzzy bodies, and pointy ears, they must look just _adorable_!"

* * *

Kim, Shego, and Samantha enjoyed their first friendly meal together in what seemed like centuries, even though it had only been few days. They ate in the living room, to avoid cleaning up the dining room which Shego was using for grading exams, and Kim turned on her new copy of _Agonizing County: Season 3_.

Shego had balked at the idea of watching the teen drama at first, but between Sam's youthful pleading and Kim's threat of _Pal's: Season 6 _as the other choice, Shego quickly relented. As it turned out Sam had never seen either show before so the other two women got a kick out of watching her experiencing the over-dramatized show for the first time. When the first episode ended Sam almost leaped out of her seat as she made a dash over to the bookshelf where the other DVD's were kept.

"Whoa slow down there," Shego laughed at her 'little sister,' which was Samantha's cover.

"Yeah what's the rush?" Kim asked.

"Just getting this," Samantha replied, holding up the first season of _Agonizing County_.

Shego's face fell as she saw the box set. "Hey! Hold on there. I agreed to an episode, not a Marathon."

Kim smirked at the discomfort Shego was experiencing and decided to have some fun with it. "Ya know, I think it is only far for Sam to see how it started. I mean she doesn't even know about her first boyfriend-"

"Ok," Shego interrupted. "First of all there was no other boyfriend, it turned out to be a trick to get him back in the Second season premier, and second-"

"And I thought you didn't like the show."

"I-well uh," Shego stuttered as she found herself caught.

"Uh, hmmm," Kim mused.

"I just watch it to keep current, _OK_?" the older woman huffed.

Sam just watched the exchange with a mixture of fascination and concern. When the two older women calmed down she decided to ask the question that was plaguing her mind the most.

"So does this mean I can turn on the first season?"

Shego slapped her forehead in irritation, and growled at the other two. "_FINE_, whatever." _At least it beats Karaoke night with Drakken_, she mentally noted.

* * *

"Good news," Nancy announced when she reentered the living room.

"We're getting paid?" Lynn asked with a great deal of fake enthusiasm.

"Soon," Nancy replied. "But that depends on the next step.

"Which is?"

"We need to test the results," Amy guessed.

"N-Yes" Nancy stuttered. She paused and shot the overweight madwoman a surprised look. It was far to easy to underestimate Dr. Amy Hall, and Nancy was shocked that she had allowed herself to forget that the woman was brilliant, in her own way.

"Test?" Lynn asked warily. With DNAmy involved in anything related to genetics, Lynn usually found herself on edge, and this was far from an exception.

"Yeah, test," Nancy confirmed for her younger twin. "Jack Hench wants the results confirmed, and for that we need to test the genetic changes."

"On who?" Lynn asked cautiously.

"Ooh, don't you mean on _whom_, Dear?" Amy asked far too cheerfully, considering the circumstances.

"Really I don't care," Lynn snapped. "I just want to be sure that no one is getting volunteered in this room."

"It would be freaky," Nancy mused.

"That's why I'm asking-"

"I mean with the increased speed, strength, and all the other stuff, it would be totally _FREEEEAKY_!" Nancy added, with an eerily close imitation of Adrena Lynn's old trademark phrase.

"You know what?" Lynn muttered softly.

"You'll do it?" Nancy asked.

"I really hate you right now," Lynn finished.

Nancy smiled widely as she saw that she had her sister. The new Adrena Lynn couldn't back down from either a challenge or an adventure. Not without being back at square one as a Henchman, or Henchwoman in this case.

"You are going to be soo cute when we're done!" Amy cooed.

"You know what else?"

"You hate her to?" Nancy guessed.

"That too, but what I was going to say was; 'I _really_ hate my life.'"


	16. Chapter 16

For disclaimer see Chapter 1

* * *

Shego sighed in relief as she sat in the living room's recliner and closed her eyes to rest. Since Sensei's visit two days earlier things had started to return to normal. Kim and Sam were back in their classes again, while Shego's classes were fast approaching their next round of exams. The only real annoyance that the trio were dealing with was Sam's newly found love of low-budget Sci-Fi shows, _Space Passage_ in particular.

While Shego could tolerate the corny program (after living with Dr. Drakken, anything else is easy) Kim couldn't stand the moronic TV show. After a few fights over the remote, one of which came close to becoming a real smack down, Shego stole all the remotes for the living room and started another _Pals _marathon until things began to settle down again.

Now both of the college students were in their rooms studying, and Shego was taking a well deserved rest before preparing for her class tomorrow.

"Shego?" came a voice from the hallway.

"Yes Kimmie?" Shego growled.

"You were right," Kim replied. Quietly she entered the room on her crutches and eased down into the couch facing Shego's chair.

Shego carefully opened an eye to look at the red-haired hero to see whether or not the younger woman was serious.

"Could you repeat that," Shego finally said. "For a minute there I thought you said that I was right about something."

"I did," Kim scowled. "You were right. I never thought about the people that got hurt on my old missions." She paused to hold back a sob. Shego opened both eyes and sat up at the unexpected revelation. Finally after regaining some of her composure Kim continued, "I mean I knew that a lot of people might have been hurt when Warmonga attacked, or when all those Lil' Diablo toys attacked, but I never really saw them hurt, ya know?"

"Yeah it does make a lot of difference when you see it happen," Shego agreed.

"Yeah," Kim sighed. "Well you see that was the first time that I ever saw someone I worked with hurt, I mean really hurt."

"You've already told me all this."

"Just let me finish," Kim interrupted. "I know I've told you that before, but what I wanted to say is I appreciate everything you've been doing."

Shego shifted uneasily in her chair at the unexpected show of gratitude. For some reason having Kim show any appreciation for her was rather unsettling. _She's good, I'm evil. She's a hero, I'm-was a Villainess_. She stopped to consider what she had just thought. _I_ WAS _a villainess. So what am I now? Drakken's gone, I am- I _WAS _working for Global Justice. Now that they're gone, why am I still here babysitting some teen girl with Kimmie?_

Shego shook away the thought as it became more confusing. The one thing she hated the most was doubting, or second-guessing herself or her abilities. Drakken had finally lost it and was locked away for good, Global Justice was destroyed. So it was unlikely that Shego was going to be getting a new paycheck from either group anytime soon. So again her thoughts again returned to the old question, _Why am I still here?_

Finally Shego looked back at Kim and a possible answer hit her, and she just as quickly dismissed it. No that CAN'T be it!

"Kimmie I've, uh, gotta go, you know, prepare for class tomorrow." Shego stuttered as she jumped up.

Kim looked up at Shego in confusion of the older woman's response, "Right now?"

"Yeah, you know exams coming up and all," Shego rambled while making her exit, "Gotta be ready for them." And with that she was gone.

Kim stared at the door to the hallway for a few moments, wondering at Shego's behavior. _What was that all about?_

* * *

Ron sat back in bed and just stared at the ceiling of his hospital room. He had had plenty of time to do it, even going so far last night as to actually start counting the number of ceiling, and then floor tiles. There was really nothing else to do, his injuries made most movement painful, and with a few areas still stitched and burned he was in enough pain as it was without inviting more.

Added to the physical pain was the emotional. He could still remember Yori saving his life, along with the other members of the two Global Justice teams on that last mission. It was Yori's first real mission as a team leader and it had just gone from bad to worse. The last thing he could recall from it was all the members of the other team laying around knocked out, or worse, himself badly hurt, and the other two members of their team missing. On top of all that only Yori was still fighting. She had held the guy, the one guy who had almost massacred them all, at bay with nothing more than sheer determination.

He recalled how she had been badly burned all over her body from merely touching the enemy's body shield, how her weapons had been destroyed just from trying to penetrate the man's armor, and the way she had been batted away like a gnat, as if the fight were some kind of game to her opponent.

Ron chocked as he recalled the feeling of helplessness he had felt while watching Yori sacrifice herself to save them. He remembered when he had tried to help. The feeling of the Mystical Monkey Powers coming to life, while he had focused on the Lotus Blade. Then he nearly cried when the memories flooded in of the man knocking him down as if he were back in Kindergarten. Only this time there was no Kim to help him. If Camp Wannaweep had seemed like a Place of Evil, that mission was somewhere up there with the Seventh Layer of Hell.

The part that always stuck in his mind was that _He_ should have been the one in Yori's place. _He_ was the Monkey Master, not Yori. She was good, no beyond good, but she had to rely on just her skill to save her, while he should have been able to do more with the power he was carrying around inside himself.

He was pulled from his self-loathing by a knock at his door. Since he had regained consciousness he had had several visitors, mostly the other two members of his team, and Dr. Director, and the former two would enter whether he said they could or not. He pulled himself up into a better seating position as the door opened, and nearly fainted as Sensei, the Master of Yamanouchi entered the room.

"Sensei," he croaked in shock. Ron quickly coughed into his hand to clear his throat and tried again, "Sensei," he said a little more clearly, "It is an, uh, honor to see you again."

"As it is to see you, young Stoppable." The ageing teacher answered. "I see that you are recovering well."

* * *

Adrenna Lynn shot up in bed gasping for breath, nearly clawing her own throat in an attempt to breath.

Nancy flew to her sister's side and held the disoriented woman while she calmed herself down. "It's alright Adrenna," she soothed her younger twin. "It's alright, just breath."

Adrenna Lynn looked around the lab she was in, gauging the machines and strange devices, as if she had never seen anything like them before.

Nancy watched Lynn's eyes darting around the room, and fought the urge to shake her head at it. "You have no idea where you are, do you?" she asked.

Lynn looked back at her sister and slowly shook her head in answer.

"Well it's really not surprising," she continued. "Amy said that you would probably not have any real memories of the hours leading up to the procedure. It has something to do with the way that the genetic re-sequencing literally disassembling your body and rebuilding it. She said that the most humane way would be to erase the experience from your memory, and that it could mean losing some of the memories leading up to the operation." She paused as she saw the confusion on Lynn's face growing. "You don't have any idea what I'm talking about."

Lynn squeezed her eyes shut in concentration, but remained quiet while her sister sighed and tried again. "Yesterday Amy told us her results from the blood sample I brought. She said it came from a person who had been altered genetically to be some sort of superman or something. Well she said that it was impossible to know all of the benefits the guy had without testing the new sequences on someone else, and we both agreed."

"So you two tested it on me?" Lynn asked in horror.

"Actually you volunteered," Nancy smiled. "I believe you wanted the enhancements to take on Kim Possible again."

Lynn froze for a second as vague memories started to resurface. Slowly the jumble of thoughts began to come back together and she began to remember parts of the day before.

"I volunteered?"

"Yes, you volunteered." Nancy confirmed.

Adrenna shook her head to clear it but quickly stopped as she found herself slamming her face into the pillow again and again.

"Careful sis," Nancy cautioned as she moved closer to her sister, and gently caressed her cheek. "Amy said that it might take a while for you to adjust to the enhancements."

"I'm alright, really," Lynn assured her older twin, and raised her hand to touch her sister's, only to watch it shoot up to knock Nancy's arm away.

"OW!" Nancy shouted while cradling her sore arm.

"Oh Nancy I'm soo sorry!" Lynn cried, sitting up in bed. At least the was the plan. She shot up so fast that the force carried her up so fast that she fell over dizzily and collapsed onto the concrete floor.

"ADRENNA!" Nancy screamed as she dashed to her little sister's side. "Lynn! Are you alright!" Carefully she raised her sister by the shoulders and eased her onto her lap.

"Nancy?" Lynn quiety asked.

"Yes?"

"I am going to stay right here until the room stops spinning."

* * *

Ron sat in his bed and stared over to the nearby chair where his old instructor sat looking back at him. Sensei looked just like the last time he had seen him, dressed in the robes of the Yamanouichi school, and appearing to be at least a couple of years older than dirt. As the two men sat staring at each other Ron began to feel more and more ashamed. The last time the two had met Ron had been dating a wonderful girl, was in the process of graduating high school, and aiding his parents in raising a future ninja superhero.

Now just one year later he had abandoned his sister and parents, driven away his former girlfriend, and had failed to protect the only friend he had left.

Ron's head dropped down to hide from Sensei's unwavering gaze. "I know, I know, I royally screwed up this time didn't I?"

Sensei raised an eyebrow almost enough for Ron to see an eye, but remained quiet.

"You might as well say it!" Ron spat, raising his head to look back at Sensei. "You know it's true! I had the chance right in front of me! I could have made it! My own chance at proving that ME, RON STOPPABLE has what it takes!" he paused to fight back the tears that were threatening to flow. "And what did I do? I FAILED!"

Ron threw his arms up in defeat and fall back into the mattress. "Way to go man! When your last friend needs you, you choke." He finally let the tears start to flow as that horrible evening played through his mind. "The worst part was that I actually saw her fighting over ME. I saw HER sacrificing herself for ME." He propped himself back up to look at his old teacher. "Why?" he asked in confusion. "Why would she do that for me? I mean I know I wasn't the only one there, but she fought so much harder when I went down."

"Why do YOU think she would have fought harder?" Sensei asked.

"I don't know!" Ron exclaimed. "Maybe, she just thought . . . just thought. . ."

"Yes?"

"But she couldn't! She said herself back at _Yamanouchi_ that our paths were separate, or something like that."

"And what if they are no longer separate?"

"But. . . but she never said anything- wait, she never said anything before either!" Ron swung his arm up to slap himself, and barely caught himself before making the huge blunder in his condition.

"It seems that you are learning after all." Sensei remarked, while standing up.

"You're leaving?" Ron whined.

"I need to speak to some other people, and I have little time in which to do so," the old master apologized. "If I have time I will return. In the meantime you Young Stoppable, have much to meditate on." With that Sensei left Ron to think about what he was beginning to understand.

* * *

"Master Sensei!" Yori cried as the older man stepped into the room. She could barely hide the fear and shame she felt as she lay in the hospital bed, covered in bandages, stitches, and skin grafts, all the while hooked up to more machines than she thought possible.

"At ease child," Sensei answered calmly. He carefully made his way to his most trusted student and sat at the only available seat near the bed. "That is better."

"Oh Sensei!" Yori blurted out. "I have failed! I have shamed myself, you-"

"No, you have not," Sensei calmly retorted. "Because of your courage many people were saved that night. I have spoken to the other two members of your team, along with the commander of this facility and all of them agree that your actions allowed the remaining members of the original group to survive."

"But Sensei-"

"There will always be a time and place for you to analyze and question decisions of the past, but here and now is neither," the master continued. "Now is the time for rest and recovery." As he spoke he stood and carefully placed a hand on Yori's undamaged shoulder. "I will remain here for the next few days. For now, however I will leave you to rest."

"Yes Sensei."

Without another word Sensei left the room.

* * *

"So you must be the legendary Jackson and Feldman," Dr. Betty Director smiled as she and an elderly man approached the two men. Ever since Yori and Ron had been placed in the hospital ward the duo had maintained a constant watch over their wounded friends. At the moment they were sitting outside Ron's room while Sensei spoke to Yori.

"Yes Ma'am!" Feldman answered as he and Jackson snapped to attention.

"And what makes these two young men so 'legendary?'" asked Dr Director's companion.

"These two men are the ones who traveled with Ron Stoppable in his latest mission," Betty explained. They managed to disarm the bomb at the airport, escape an explosion in the control tower, and administer first aid to their fallen team members." She paused as another thought hit her, "also they are former classmates of another one of your old acquaintances, a Miss. Kimberly Ann Possible."

"I am Corporal Vinnie Jackson," Jackson introduced himself, "and this is Specialist Kristopher Feldman Jr."

"A pleasure Corporal," the old man replied as he shook Vinnie's hand. "I am Señor Senior Sr."

"Uh sir, aren't you like a, villain?" Feldman asked.

Senior Sr. laughed lightly at the question and smiled at the two younger men. "Yes and no my young friends. Villainy for me has always been a hobby, a pastime for me to enjoy with my billions of dollars."

Senior Sr. paused for a moment to sigh and remember before continuing. "Alas a hobby is meaningless if you accomplish it. I am sure that in your younger years you observed older members of you families in their hobbies. Just as they never intended to fully complete their hobbies of shuffleboard, knitting, whittling, or chess, I never intended to complete my quest to take over the world. I always knew that my nemesis Kim Possible and her partner would stop me, which allowed me the freedom to strive as hard as I could to excel in my plans, without fear of ending the game.

"Now however with the world in shambles, it is far too easy for me to succeed, even with my nemesis still fighting me. As a result I am working with Miss Director here to rebuild the world from behind the scenes, as it were, before attempting to resume my old hobby."

Feldman and Jackson glanced at each other in confusion as they considered what they had just heard.

"So let me get this straight," Feldman spoke up. "You want to save the world, so that you can try to dominate it later?"

"Yes."

"Dude, whatever works for you," Jackson shrugged, no longer even trying to understand the obviously senile old man.

Betty stepped in before her two young agents got even more confused by the former villain. "Gentlemen, I am sorry but Mr. Senior and I need to move along. Please give Yori and Stoppable our regards when they wake up."

"Yes Ma'am!" the two men saluted while Dr. Director and Senior Sr. left.

"Dude," Feldman said to Jackson once they were alone again.

"I know man, things just got even weirder."

* * *

"Shego!" Kim cried in near panic as she ran into the living room the next morning.

Earlier that day Shego had taken Kim over to the Hospital for a check up only to find that the young redheaded woman was all but completely healed. The doctors had declared it a miracle, but Kim insisted to Shego that it must have been Sensei and his mystical powers that had done it. Without any earl evidence either way shgo decided not to even have an opinion on the subject and just accepted what she saw.

"Calm down Princess," Shego replied as she calmly strolled out of the kitchen, "I'm coming."

Shego entered the room to find that Kim was wide eyed with fear and uncertainty with an open letter in her hands.

"Ok, I'm here," Shego said as she plopped down in the recliner, "What's up?"

"Shego?" Kim began.

"Yeah?"

"Shego?"

"Still present," she smirked.

"Shego, will you shut up!" Kim snapped. "I'm trying to tell you something!"

"And I'm waiting for you to tell me what it is."  
"My parents left!" Kim blurted out.

"Left where?" Shego asked. She was puzzled by Kim's near panic over her parents moving when Kim wasn't even living in the same state any more.

"They're starting a Lunar Migration!" Kim exclaimed.

"A what?" Shego deadpanned. Now she was almost certain that Kim had lost it. Sure, her dad was a rocket scientist, but what the young woman had just said made almost no sense.

"Ron's parents donated nearly all of the Naco Royalties from the last three years that Ron left them to the Middleton Space center to research a way to start a colony on the moon," Kim began to explain.

"Why."

"Between an alien invasion, the collapse of the only worldwide police force, and the full global depression-"

"Point taken," Shego interrupted.

"Anyways my family and Ron's were two of the first families to leave for the migration!" Kim cried as she fell into the sofa.

Shego glanced around nervously as she tried to think about how to respond. The conversation itself was so random and crazy that she didn't know how to react. The thought that a family would move on a moment's notice was not very strange, especially with jobs so scarce after the invasion, but moving to the moon was not something many people thought of, ever.

She settled on a more unorthodox approach, for her. Slowly she rose from the chair and moved over next to Kim. Sitting down next to her she put an arm over the smaller woman's shoulders.

"When did they leave?" Shego asked.

"Two days ago," Kim muttered.

"And you're just now finding out about it?" Shego was beyond astonished at the answer. Kim's family was one of the closest ones she had ever seen, and strangely enough, one of the most normal. The thought that they would take off without telling their only daughter made no sense at all to her.

"Apparently this _is_ their way of telling me." Kim spat bitterly. "After the Tweebs were nearly killed in a school bombing they decided to take the warning and leave."

"And they were afraid of someone finding out about their plans, and trying something else," Shego began to realize the parents position. It was clear from the beginning that the attempt on the brothers was retaliation against Kim. If the people that did it realized that the whole family was leaving together they might have tried another attempt at killing them, and possibly succeed. Therefore the only way to go safely was to go secretly, no matter how hard it was to keep Kim out of the loop.

Shego gently rubbed Kim's back as she considered what to say, "You know I'm sure they wanted to tell you."

"But it still doesn't make it any easier," Kim moaned. For her things were going from bad to worse. First her home was destroyed, and then she was taking classes overseas. After that Ron disappeared without any word but a simple note about how it was time for them both to move on. Now the rest of the Stoppable family, including Rufus, along with her parents and brothers were gone, without any word except for a simple note.

For the first time in her life Kim was alone. _No that's not true_. She considered. She had a job to do. There was a young woman, a friend, who still needed protection just down the hallway, and there was Shego. _What one minute_, a voice crept into her mind. _Since when are you depending on_ Shego _for _anything_?_

_Well she _is_ a friend_, Kim considered.

_Is she?_ The voice countered.

_Of course_, Kim affirmed. _She helped me when I was messed up after the last mission, she stuck by me and Samantha when she didn't have to, and she is here for me now. That's what friends do. That's what Ron did, and that's what Shego does._

_But Ron wasn't just a friend_.

_No he _wasn't. Kim thought as she leaned against Shego's shoulder and closed her eyes. She stayed there and silently conserved that point until she finally fell asleep.

Shego continued to rub Kim's back until she was sure that the younger woman was asleep. After she was certain that the teen was asleep she carefully carried her to her room, and went back to her own room to prepare for the next day. On her way she past Samantha's room she heard the youngest of the three of them banging away at her keyboard. _Why am I still here?_ She asked herself for what seemed like the thousandth time. The answer started creeping its way back out again, but she quickly suppressed it as usual. _No, _she affirmed,_ that cannot be it._


	17. Chapter 17

For Disclaimer see Chapter 1

* * *

Kim woke up early the next morning and began to get ready for her classes. At first she was a little confused to find herself in her room after falling asleep on the living room sofa, but with classes starting early there was little time to think about such things. Shego had woken up before Kim and had already made a nice hot breakfast which was waiting for Kim when she entered the Kitchen so she quickly sat down to eat. While eating she began to think back to last night and how she had lost her family, again.

She had not had many chances to see them last year while she was in Europe studying, nor after Dr. Director convinced her to transfer to a school in the South. Also since most of the internet crashed in the fallout of Warmonga's attack Wade wasn't as useful with procuring rides, or even finding missions as he had once been, and with her parents using her supped-up car for their new personnel vehicle, at her request, Kim was not nearly as mobile as before.

The only real saving grace that she had going in all of this was Wade's and the Tweebs new satellite communications company. Between the Tweebs obsession with sending things into orbit, and Wade's own obsession with creating new gadgets, the three of them had put together a very successful satellite phone company. The Tweebs also managed to take the opportunity to improve the Kimmunicator's range so theoretically it now had the capacity to still reach her parents, once they managed to get Wade to build them a Kimmunicator of their own.

Somehow Kim managed to make it to the car before Shego left her behind, and slipped into her first class seconds before the Teaching Assistant started the lecture. She barely listened as the monotoned young man narrated the lecture, as she thought over what had happened to her family. She almost laughed aloud at the ridiculousness of the situation. When most families move away from each other it's usually from one city to another or to another country at the most, but not her family_. After all,_ she snorted, _when was the last time anyone ever heard of their parents leaving the planet on a business venture_.

Kim was still in her state of near depression as Shego dropped her off at their house that afternoon. Kim was actually rather glad that she would have the house to herself for the next few hours, while the other two women were still at the university.

As Kim walked through the hallway towards her room she noticed something sitting on the floor in front of Samantha's room. She paused and stopped to see that it was a small flashdrive that the younger woman must have dropped in her rush to get to the car that morning. Scrawled on the side of the small memory unit was a date with a line next to it. It took all of half a second for Kim to realize she had picked up a diary.

Normally Kim would have placed the lost item back into its owner's room, especially with how much the Tweebs and Wade used to violate her privacy, but as she picked it up curiosity began to get the better of her. Samantha had always been a great mystery both her and Shego, and now was her chance to find out something about her.

The young red-headed woman ran into her room and quickly plugged in the flashdrive. Once it loaded she searched the list of files, all of which were sorted by months and years starting with one that was marked two years earlier. She clicked on the oldest file and opened it to find a single video file marked 'Lazy C'.

She remembered from one of her Nana's letters that Samantha had been to the ranch and had met not only her Nana but also Uncle Slim and Joss as well. However this file was dated just one week after she had graduated from high school, and Nana did not tell her that she had met Sam until right before this last semester started, which was over a whole year later.

The video was slightly grainy and shaky and appeared to be two different video camera feeds paying side by side while the operator was moving across an open field. In the top left corner a line of text read 'TORNADO LEFT EYE CAM' with 'TORNADO RIGHT EYE CAM' on the opposite side. The bottom of both sides had a time stamp dating matching it to the file folder containing the video.

The video started by showing the operator moving down the field, up and down the rolling hills that Kim recognized from her trip to the Lazy C. She could tell from the feed that the area was near the old border between the Lazy C and the Crooked S ranches, before Uncle Slim had bought the other ranch at auction. As the camera continued forward several aircraft flew directly over the top of the picture and flew off to the right and over the horizon.

Just as the camera turned to follow the craft Kim paused and rewowned the video to see the craft again. She slowly zoomed in on one of the vehicles, and almost gasped in surprise at the design. They seemed to be built like motorcycles rather than planes with one or two riders dressed in full-body sealed grey armored suits stadled on top as if it were a motorcycle, and with hover disks instead of wheels, giving them the appearance of Felix's chair, or Drakken's 'Doomvee.'

"Drakken was at Uncle Slim's ranch again?" Kim wondered aloud.

* * *

She restarted the video and watched as the camera's, which she decided must be Slim's robotic horse Tornado, rode to the top of a ridge, and into view of an all out battle.

The Hoverbikes were swooping down on infantry soldiers blasting trenches in the soft soil, and firing rockets and plasma bolts at each other. One of the bikes dropped a large canister on top of the still parked hoverbikes and let lose a wave of flames as it exploded on the ground.

Kim was frozen to the screen in fascination at the violence on the screen. It looked like the attackers had less than fifty men, while the defenders had around a hundred and fifty. While she watched the attackers fought fanatically, and with lethal precision, but they were hopelessly outnumbered, and one by one their vehicles, and people, were being taken out.

The airborne attackers split into three groups to concentrate on specific tasks, with one group landing to help the people on the ground, another group focused on strafing enemies on the ground, and the third group continued to attack the enemies in the air. The plan seemed to work for a while. The in the aerial dogfight the attackers were far superior to the defenders, while on the ground the reinforced troops fought with a renewed passion. On the far side of the battle a larger aircraft landed and soon six new black-armored fighters joined the battle.

Throughout the video Kim kept checking to make sure it was playing at regular speed, because while the vehicle were probably meant to fly at incredible speeds, the troops on both sides were moving at what should have been impossible speeds. They were far from the speeds of the BeeBee's but they still moved faster than normal people. In many ways they reminded her of the old centurion armor, with a full helmet and visor attached.

Soon the enemy aircraft were all but wiped out and many of the remaining attacking craft turned to aid in the strafing. It really seemed that the attackers were going to win, but then everything changed. A giant wingless, blimp-shaped aircraft, about the size of Drakken's weather machine, bristling with rocket, and plasma cannons descended towards the battle. Several of the attacker's aircraft turned to engage the new treat only to be blasted from the sky like swatted insects. The mammoth craft turned and launched a barrage of rockets at the ground-based attackers forcing the survivors to flee into the cloud of smoke from the earlier fight for cover. The surviving hoverbikes took the momentary distraction to launch their own barrage of rockets on the larger craft knocking it out of the sky, but not without taking heavy losses from its guns, and the remaining defenders hoverbikes.

For the next few minutes the defending bikes wiped out the last of the airborne attackers, while on the ground the reverse was happening. Finally it was down to two defending hoverbikes, and only four attacking infantry. The ground soldiers fought back while fleeing on foot. One wielded a large cannon, salvaged from a fallen bike, the other three carried what looked like military assault rifles.

The whole scene resembled Raptors swooping down on their prey. Kim sat stunned as the cameras began moving rapidly to the troubled foursome. At one point one of the soldiers turned and fired a lucky shot that knocked one of the pilots off his hovercraft and to the ground, but it did nothing to slow the last pilot.

Just as the falling bike exploded into the ground the video started moving quickly to the fleeing troops. Kim could not believe that her uncle would risk his life to help these strange warriors, but then she remembered how many people throughout the years questioned her about how she helped strangers almost daily for the past six years without question. She supposed that it was genetic for Possibles to help people, and Uncle Slim must have seen something in these people to help them.

Kim's heart almost missed a beat when the last pilot landed a lucky shot right on top of the group throwing two of them to the ground. The others grabbed their fallen comrades and kept running, but she worried that they wouldn't survive another pass.

Finally the camera feed got close to the endangered troops, and the picture added two new angles to show the rear view clearly.

Uncle Slim helped the troops to throw the wounded pair onto the back of Tornado as the heavy gunner turned and sprayed rapid plasma shots at the approaching aircraft. The craft tried to turn away from the torrent of fire, but it wasn't nearly fast enough. The fuselage erupted into a fireball, as the craft began to lose altitude the pilot leaped from it, only to be sliced in half by a single shot from the gunner.

The video continued as Uncle Slim brought the group back to the barn by the ranch house shortly after dark, with the two wounded soldiers on Tornado's back, and the other two keeping pace on foot. After the group entered the building the video stopped leaving Kim to wonder about what she had just seen.

Kim leaned back in her chair and thought about the video. She wondered why Uncle Slim never mentioned it before, or if Joss even knew about it. It seemed strange that it could have happened without anyone else knowing of it, especially since secrets in the Possible family were so rare. She doubted that Nana knew of it, but on the other hand it took her sixteen years to find out that her grandmother knew martial arts so keeping secrets was not beyond her.

The main questions remained though as to who the two sides were, why they were fighting on her uncle's ranch, and why did Samantha have a video of the fight. The speed and fighting style were similar to some of the people that were at the fight from here last mission in Europe, but the armor and weapons were unlike anything she had ever seen. While plasma weapons were quite common with villains these had extraordinary power for their size, and even Jack Hench didn't have this level of technology yet. As far as Kim knew the only source of that kind of power in such a small size was Shego herself.

* * *

"Having fun with my Diary?" Samantha growled.

Kim jumped in surprise and turned around to see a very angry Samantha standing in the doorway, arms crossed, and glaring back at her. Standing behind her was Shego looking very disappointed at Kim.

She looked over her two roommates and offered a weak grin, "busted?"

"Busted," they both affirmed.

"I guess I have some explaining to do," Kim sighed.

"Ya think?" Shego retorted. She followed Samantha as the youngest member of the group stormed into the room. She wasn't sure which one she would support in a throw down, because though she was fonder of Kim she knew that if Kim was going to hold everyone else to a high morale standard she needed to be held to it herself.

"What did you see?" Samantha growled as she turned the computer to get a better look.

"Just this video," Kim showed her.

Shego didn't knew that Sam could look any more angry, but as soon as the younger woman saw the file Kim was pointing to she found out just how mad she could be. For a moment it looked like Samantha would explode. Her face grew flushed, she balled her fists so tight she drew blood, her eyes narrowed more, and she clenched she jaw so tightly Shego was surprised that she didn't hear teeth crack.

"How, how," Sam tired to speak, "How COULD YOU!" she screamed.

Kim opened her mouth to answer, but shut it when she saw Shego shaking her head.

Samantha pulled the battery out of Kim's computer, shutting it down, then ripped out the flashdrive and ran out of the room without another word.

"Wow," Shego said once Samantha was gone. "You really don't do anything halfway, do you?"

Kim shook her head and sighed, "Maybe I should-"

"No," Shego interrupted, shaking her finger at her, "You don't do anything ok?"

"But-"

"Na, uh," Shego snapped before leaving the room. "_I'LL_ talk to her. Consider yourself grounded."

* * *

"So this is it," Jack Hench smiled to himself. For the past week he had worked tirelessly to find out what his new Boss's plan was.

First this new boss had begun trickling new, advanced weapons and body armor to various villains (and unstable world regimes) through Hench Co, and had managed to get the UN to declare Global Justice an enemy of the free world to prevent their interference. Second he replaced Jack with one of his Lieutenants, a woman he had never even met before. Third she immediately attempted to annihilate Kim Possible and her immediate family in retaliation for stumbling onto a failed weapons deal with Gemini.

Now after hacking this woman's computer he discovered that she had raided former GJ prisons for villains that held useful skills. He was also able to learn that all of the Possible assassinations were failures, the only success being that Miss Possible's family had left the planet.

What intrigued him the most was the new list of targets. One of the first was a mountaintop school in Japan, but it did not specify what the school was for. Another appeared to be a subterranean facility in the mountains bordering the United States and Canada. The third was a house in Colorado, and the date for the attack was set to occur within thirty-five hours.

At first glance the whole setup appeared to be either a random set of actions, or a bad villain's plot, but closer analysis showed the plot to be far more devious. The two young men injured with Kim Possible when her car exploded were from Japan, so the attack at the school was probably to warn off their friends or a first strike response to prevent retaliation. The assault on the underground lair was simply to gain a new, already furnished headquarters, and the attack on the house was to stop his experiments at discovering more about the new boss, and his people, by killing DNAmy and his people along with all their research.

Well now that he knew what the immediate future held, he could manipulate it to his advantage, Jack thought with glee as he saved the information to his flashdrive. It had been a long time since he had been in charge of his life, and now he had what he always felt he was due, power.

Jack laughed to himself as he considered his new 'employer's' alias. Bás_ the Celtic word for death_, he chuckled. Death might have intimidated many people, but not Jack Hench. Death was the natural companion for evil, and his clientele certainly qualified as just that.

_And now it is time for _me _to do something evil_, he considered while casually inspecting the small memory devise in his hands_, and I cannot think of anything better than to give a certain group of Hero's a heads up on what's to come_.

* * *

Kim was relaxing on the couch with Shego, watching a rerun of the Fearless Ferret when her Kimmunicator went off. Samantha who was dozing in the recliner next to them nearly flew out of her seat at the noise, convinced in her dreamy state that it was her alarm. After falling to the floor for her trouble Sam looked up and allowed her hazy brain to register that she was in the Living Room, and that her two roommates/friends/body guards were barely restraining their laughter at her expense.

None of the ladies had mentioned the incident the day before, and so far things appeared to be getting back to normal, or normal for them. They all knew that one day soon they would have to talk about it, but with all the strange things going on they all silently agreed that today did not need to be that day.

"Go on," she mockingly growled, in her best super-villain imitation while helping herself to her feet, "Laugh, but next time it'll be YOU on the floor and I Samantha Kim will be ZEE ONE LAUGHING!"

Laughing at the younger woman Kim answered her Kimmunicator with her usual greeting, "What's the stich Wade?" she paused as a warm smile spread over her face, "It really feels good saying that again."

"Feels good hearing it again," Wade agreed, "and Kim it looks like we're back in business."

"What, did you hear about a cat stuck in a tree again?" Shego mocked from off screen.

"Actually yes," Wade remarked to the former super-villianess, "and it was a puma, but that's not why I called. "Kim I just heard from Shego's brothers, they say that they just got a call from Jack Hench about a secret meeting, and they need you, and Shego, to come to Go City to meet with them."

Kim looked up from the screen and met Shego's gaze. From the look that the older woman gave her, she knew that they were both equally apprehensive about this 'call' that the eccentric team had received from Jack Hench. The business man was not known for being either helpful, or generous with anything, information included.

"Kim you don't have to meet with them if you don't want to," Wade continued. "Just say the word and I'll-"

"No," Kim interrupted. "I'll be there. I'll just need a ride."

"Yeah," Wade's face sobered at Kim's answer. "I heard about the car bombing."

"Lucky thing Shego could get us a rental," the red-head smiled weakly. "Now about that ride?"

"Just like old times," Wade smiled back. "It'll be there in ten minutes."

"Plenty of time to get ready!" Kim practically cheered as she stood up and moved to her bedroom. After all the bad luck she had been having lately, a new mission was just what she needed.

"For you maybe!" Shego called after her. "Some of us actually like to look presentable for flights," she muttered to herself.

* * *

Hego carefully looked around his fast-food restraint for the third time in five minutes. Ever since he had gotten word from Jack Hench he had been on the verge of panic. The news was horrible. Super villains being outfitted with weapons generations more advanced than anything seen before, genetically modified death-squads rampaging around Europe, and worst of all it seemed that the villains were going to start uniting soon under the commander of the super-soldiers.

It didn't take long for him to send out an APB to all of the heroes he knew to have a meeting of the minds at his Taco Bueno. Unfortunately the only Heroes he knew were his family and Kim Possible. Electonique would probably count as a Hero if only she had not declared herself a pacifist and joined the Civil Service branch of Global Justice just before they were wiped out. For all he knew she was laying in some gutter now with a knife in her back, or worse being held by a rogue government out for Hench Co's bounty on GJ personnel. Hego shuddered as he remembered the stories of what happened to female GJ agents who were captured. Most of them agreed that those who were merely raped and killed were the lucky ones, if any of them could be called lucky.

Now he, the Wego's and Mego were waiting for Kim and some new partner of hers to arrive. He had no idea about who this other person was, and considering all the strange things going on lately that terrified him, but Kim had never let them down before, so he decided to trust her on her choice of partners.

Hego glanced up at the new wall clock for what seemed like the hundredth time and groaned as he saw that it was still five minutes until Kim was supposed to arrive. While looking at the corny clock with cactus arms he thought again how ridiculous it was that at this dangerous time he was looking at a clock that belonged in a child's nursery. Unfortunately the construction crew which corporate had sent down yesterday had insisted on installing the eyesore with all the new mandated upgrades, along with the cushioned tiles, new murals which were still being painted, and new insulation in the walls and ceilings.

Again he glanced at the wall clock. _Four till_, he moaned. _Four more minutes._

* * *

"Shego I told you we'd be late!" Kim yelled over the noise of the helicopter's rotor blades as she hooked up her repelling gear.

Shego smiled to herself at how easy it was to annoy the former teen hero. "And I told you I like to look presentable when I travel, so sue me!"

"But-Oh never mind!" Kim gave up the argument when the fast food restraint came into view. At over three stories high, Hego's place was very difficult to miss, as if any Bueno Nacho location was.

"Besides," Shego interrupted her thoughts. "It's just now Three O'clock! What are the odds that any of those retards will even notice tha-" Shego never got a chance to finish her remarks as the pilot quickly banked the helicopter to avoid a massive explosion in front of them. The thunderous explosion seemed to momentarily drown out the riot of the helicopter's engines while Kim and Shego clung to whatever they could find as the pilot leveled out the machine, just in time for the second blast. Kim's gaze darted back and forth until she saw the source of the blast and sat there stunned as Shego screamed that the sight.

The entire city block surrounding Bueno Nacho had been completely obliterated. If she had not seen the three story monstrosity seconds before, kim doubted she would have even believed that it could have even been there. In its place was a flattened mass of scrap with clouds of dust and debris falling to the ground. Slowly she tore her eyes from the screen to see Shego openly crying in shock at the sight.

"Shego!" Kim yelled at the other woman, but it was as if Shego could not here her. "SHEGO!" Kim yelled again, this time smacking the older woman on the back of the head. Shego momentarily snapped out of her trance and turned to look at her. "We need to go help them!" Kim told the former villainess. "There's going to be a LOT of hurt people down there, including your brothers!"

Shego nodded weakly to the younger woman and prepared to repel down as the pilot came in low again, but both of them doubted that the four men they were looking for were there anymore. _Could even Hego survive that?_ Kim wondered


	18. Chapter 18 Teaser

For Disclaimer see Chapter 1.

Unfortunately I will not be able to update the story for a while (such is life), so I decided to place this sample of the next couple of chapters to give an idea of what will happen when I do update it again.

* * *

"Pilot!" Shego screamed over the sound of the aircraft engines. "Bring us down _NOW_!"

"Yes Ma'am!" the pilot responded as he descended towards the carnage below.

"While the officers reported the disaster Kim took a good look at the aftermath. It was hard to make out through the smoke and debris cloud, but one thing was certain, the gigantic Bueno Nacho that had once stood in downtown Go City was gone. Had Shego not delayed them in arriving it was also a certainty that the two of them would have been sitting there when it had happed.

The helicopter descended rapidly through the cloud of smoke and haze surrounding the blast site as Kim looked for any sign of life. She began to un-strap her harness when she judged them to be at sixty feet, and screamed when she saw a blur of green and black leap out of the opposite door. As soon as the chopper touched down Kim ran to where Shego was carving up large pieces of debris and throwing them away to reach survivors.

Kim looked around the area and nearly collapsed as the magnitude of the level of destruction finally sank in. The mound of debris they were standing on was all that was left of the oversized four-story Bueno Nacho. As the haze beganh to clear she could begin to see that all the surrounding buildings had been hit hard with flying begris in the blast, and a couple looked like they might have to be condemned themselves.

Already the first Polise and Firefighter teams were arriving onsite, along with several news vans and helicopters. Kim reluctantly moved off to arrange for Shego and herself to stay and assist in the cleanup before some jackass forced them to get out.

* * *

For the next several hours, longer than Kim could even count, the two of them fought their way through the remains of the building to save the victims. Nearly two hours into the search and rescue National Guardsmen arrived with heavy lift Helicopters which added with newly arrived Search and Rescue dogs, made the job a little easier on the searchers. However despite these newly added advantages the work was still hard and Kim found that what they began to find made it nearly impossible for her to go on.

After talking with one of the National Guard engineers Kim discovered that the first blast that had hit the building had occurred about a third of the way up the structure and forced the building to fall in on itself, while the second had come from the foundation and had sent the blast straight up into the falling building and tearing apart whatever it hit. The end result of all of this was that there were very few survivors to find. When the rescuers began to pull the bodies from the rubble Kim and Shego almost completely broke down. Many of the bodies were torn and dismembered by the explosions, and for over the first hour and after the first body was found only one is four seemed to be alive.

Kim was frightened to get close enough to the rescues to find out which ones were alive and dead out of fear of what she would discover. As a result she began to unconsciously retreat back to where Shego was working for comfort.

Shego was so consumed with clearing the area she didn't even notice as Kim approached. The older woman seemed to be in a state of shock as she used her powers to tear big pieces of rubble into smaller ones and then throw them clear of the area only to repeat the process. Her face was covered in dust and streaked where her tears had run down her face.

It was over five hours before the first of Shego's brothers were found. It turned out to be one of the Wegos. As two of the Guardsmen pulled his body out of the remains of the building's elevator Shego nearly collapsed from the sight. Kim quickly caught her and eased her over to the litter where her brother lay.

* * *

Sometime later in another part of the country:

The hover jet swiftly glided over the forested land toward their final destination. Kim tried to see where the jet was headed but quickly gave up as it became increasingly difficult in the sparsely populated region at night.

Finally after what seemed like hours of flying over the rural landscape the jet slowed over what appeared to be a brightly lit complex set on one of the larger hills in the area. Kim and Shego stared outside of the canopy at the facility while the jet descended and were amazed at the layout of the place. The landing pad was set only a few yards from a very large building, that stood three stories tall and was well over a hundred yards long. The rest of the facility consisted of a large, but sparsely used parking lot, and an enclosing chain-link fence complete with razor wire, cameras, spotlights and guardhouses at the two gates entering the facility.

"Wow," Kim whispered at the site.

"So who are we meeting?" Shego asked as the hover jet finally touched down.

"You'll see," Betty casually answered. As she unstrapped herself from the pilot's seat she popped the canopy and climbed out of the craft. "Now remember you two," She called back to the other two women while they followed her out of the aircraft. "These people do not, and I repeat, do _not_ have the same sense of humor that you are used to dealing with."

"Meaning?"

"Betty sighed at Shego's attitude while the three women walked towards the large building. "Quite frankly it means that you need to be on your best behavior. They do not have to help us. The only reason they would agree to work with us is if they can be made to believe that it is in their best interest."

"I just can't believe that I've never heard of them yet," Kim pondered allowed. "I mean I've been from one side of the planet to the other for years now and I've never heard or seen anything like this before."


End file.
